Help Mia Isabella Photography Make A Fresh Start!

Hello Mia Isabella Photography Family,

My studio share has coming to an end. It's time to move up. And I need help with start up costs to build a space where I can continue to support my community make their visions a reality, employ my team, and send money home to my mom. It's time.

We have grown A LOT in the past several years as a business, and it’s been an absolute ride learning on the go, and growing our team. It’s time to take a big leap: my own studio space! My current studio share lease is up February 1st. The space is shared with so many other photographers, that I only get access 6 days a month. My house is covered in equipment and harddrives. I’ve made it work since January 2023, but I’ve simply outgrown it too much now and I need my own space.

I have always had a passion for working with other artists and keeping my services affordable and collaborative to create community everywhere I can. I am a person built by chosen family, and my professional life has felt no different. I am dreaming of building a community space where I can work, create, and foster community growth, education and possibility for other artists along the way!

Here’s where you come in:

So first, the sad reality of why I need help: depending on when you came into the picture, you may know that I have been the primary caretaker for my chronically ill parents in San Antonio, Texas for almost a decade now. I’m only 30 years old, and it’s been… hard. We lost my dad, Arturo Aguirre, to pancreatic cancer in January of 2024. He was a photographer too, and my hero. He took care of my mom, an amputee with Parkinson’s, until he no longer could and I stepped in. My mom is in good spirits trying her best to manage without him, but essentially while saving up for my new studio, my mom has needed my financial help to get the care she needs. A lot of it :/ Luckily, my business has been doing well enough to support both her, myself, our neighbor who takes care of her daily needs, and my two employees, but now with this new move up ahead, the start-up costs are a bit daunting.

The new space? 1,000 SF, big windows, only 20 minutes from my apartment in NYC.

The lease? Approved and ready to sign. (Eeeee!)

Rent and utilities monthly? Totally in budget, baby!

The 6 months up front I need to move in plus all the costs of setting up a new space?

AH. That’s the scary part.

I am incredibly resourceful, but getting through the door financially can be so hard as a single business owner. Especially in NYC.

Can we swing it? Yes. Will I have much cushion or safety left and avoid a lot of debt? No.

So a solution? Ask my community for help. We are crowd funding monetary donations along with donations in labor, equipment, food, whatever someone wants to help with to make this happen! My goal is $20,000.

Folks are already getting creative with how to help. For example, I have a dear artist friend is painting a mural that will become a backdrop in a corner of the space, my mom’s next door neighbor/carpenter friend is coming up from San Antonio to donate labor to build a storage closet with me, her wife cooking for us for the week, folks coming together to spread the word, it’s unbelievable already. We can’t do this alone, and honestly bringing community together is my favorite thing.

If you’ll consider donating, (even $5 can pay for something!) I would be eternally grateful. If you don’t feel you have the means to help with monetary donation and want to donate labor, goods or services, let me know and we can brainstorm how you can shine! Above all, whether you can donate or not, sharing this link with someone you know who maybe can helps IMMENSELY.

Thanks SO much for taking the time to read this. This all feels unreal, and we have already received so much support, and I can’t wait to see what beautiful space comes out of this.

Thank you endlessly,