Charlie Ketchen has a wildlife photography business that came about as a result of a lifelong passion for photography, and a sudden disability. She shares her journey, her love for art, and her advice for others in the disabled community.
Charlie’s art business, Prints of Nature, is the culmination of her lifelong love of photography, her passion for spreading the benefits of exposure to the natural world, and a response to becoming disabled several years ago.
Through selling the photos she takes in her local nature reserve and beyond she hopes to share with others the sense of wellbeing and restoration that she gets from the outdoors, as well as channelling her creative passion into a business that fits with her access needs.
The Journey to Prints of Nature
With a lifelong passion for photography behind her it could be seen as an inevitability that Charlie found herself with a career in the sector. From experimenting with the newest digital camera features at age 11, to five years of media studies, and a part time role as a wedding photographer’s assistant alongside her education, it has always been a calling for her.
After some encouragement from her employer she originally set out on her own in the wedding photography business, falling in love with the beautiful venues, the opportunity to share in people’s joy, and to hone her craft.
Due to the pandemic she had a range of rescheduled weddings booked in and was excited to grow her portfolio and secure her niche in the sector. It was in the build up to one of these events that everything changed for Charlie.
“I woke up and I couldn’t walk properly.”
Initially optimistic she could still attend the event as planned, it became evident due to the onset of pain, brain fog, and mobility issues among other symptoms that she would not be able to.
“The whole time I was going through tests then operations and scans and by February I had to hand the wedding over to someone else. I was heartbroken.”
It was a period of huge readjustment, learning more about disability and access, taking time to really focus on herself and her wellbeing, and reconsidering what her future would look like.
It was during this time that Charlie looked back on her portfolio of photography outside of the wedding niche, and realised that she had a backlog of thousands of beautiful photos of the natural world.
A lot of the natural world can be inaccessible to people who use mobility aids, and Charlie found herself spending more time indoors during periods when her disability flared up.
Images she had taken from her local nature reserve and other natural surroundings brought her a lot of comfort, and she saw that they could do the same for others. It was from this that Prints of Nature was born, bringing the beauty of nature into people’s homes, and providing Charlie with a new avenue to share her artistic talents.
Learning, and Learning, and Learning Some More
“Learning is so important. You don’t know everything ever. Just learn, always learn.”
Becoming disabled and then very quickly starting a brand new business venture, Charlie became an expert in learning, consuming everything she could on every topic from website design through to finding accessible hairdressers.
There was no rule book to help her navigate a newly inaccessible world, and no list of what she should do or where she should turn, so she turned to online forums, YouTube, and the disabled community to find support.
80% of disabled people acquire their disability during their working life, and it can be a huge adjustment, particularly due to the ableism rife in modern society.
Charlie’s advice for other disabled entrepreneurs.
- Keep learning: You can access free and affordable online learning resources through Creative Live and YouTube.
- Make a routine: Listen to your body and its needs, and factor these into your routine. If you need a midday nap then don’t feel guilty about it, plan for it.
- Take advantage of tools: AI tools can really help you, from using Google Gemini to write up a social media template, to calendar settings that factor in post-meeting decompression time.
- Prioritise yourself: Find what works for your wellbeing, whether that’s therapy, meditation, or gaming. Overworking yourself is not going to help your business and we all need to take breaks.
- Find your community: It’s easy to feel alone and finding others with similar experiences to connect with is so important.
Hatch, Advocacy, and the Future
"Becoming disabled changed my perspective on challenges, I am not deterred, I'm now like ‘okay, lets go!’"
In an effort to find a supportive community as well as continue her learning and development, Charlie joined a Hatch Launchpad programme. She had accessed some of the free online events before and was keen to give her business the time it deserved to thrive through a dedicated programme.
“Setting out to start my own print business, it can seem overwhelming to navigate the world of business as a disabled founder but Hatch made this so much easier and palatable. It allowed me to think about my company in a way I hadn’t before.
“I am really thankful to have been given the opportunity to access the course, connect with some amazing people and founders, as well as network with Hatch team members, past graduates and current business owners. It’s been invaluable and a great educational experience with the course material delivered in different ways to accommodate different learning styles.”
Charlie has exciting plans for the growth of the business; she wants Prints of Nature to be an avenue for people to invite nature in if for any reason they can’t get out to see it themselves, and is a huge advocate for the therapeutic power of art. She also has plans to partner with her local tourist board to more widely share the beauty of the area she lives in.
Having experienced for herself the isolation and adjustment of becoming disabled in the UK, Charlie is also determined to be an advocate for those in a similar position.
The business is currently a way for her to channel her creativity and share the art that helped her when she was most struggling with her health, and she eventually wants to expand that arm into wider campaigning and awareness raising about disability.
Disabled people deserve proper support and investment, they deserve to be able to access nature reserves, and access the old buildings that dominate the wedding industry. Charlie is using her own experiences to feed into wider conversations in the sector, and Prints of Nature is just the beginning.
