‘It’s wonderful to have an inspiring space’
creative brain when I’m going crazy in the real world,” Bloch explains.
With offices in Toronto and Calgary, her Ottawa-based company called MDRN Photobooth provides a “customized pop-up photo portrait experience” in which guests at weddings and other live or virtual events instantly capture Instagram-worthy memories and moments.
But it took years for Bloch’s current career to come into sharp focus. With a father who was a photographer, she developed an early passion of her own but discovered she couldn’t make a decent living from wedding photography, thanks to long hours and low pay.
So she got into the insurance industry, working her way up through the corporate world while continuing to style and photograph weddings as a side hustle.
Still hoping to parlay her creativity into a career, she went to a Las Vegas trade show to look for business ideas in 2014.
One came in a flash: a “beautiful” photo booth like a mobile studio that produced premiumquality prints. Bloch bought the $10,000 item on the spot using her parents’ emergency credit card.
A year later, her part-time business was booming, bringing in a six-figure revenue that eventually allowed her to quit her day job and run it full time. MDRN Photobooth, which now employs a dozen people and provides a variety of photography services across the country, survived the pandemic by supporting virtual events.
That includes those video meetings from Bloch’s home office.
The black-painted multifunctional space also serves as spare bedroom, gym and TV room in the home she shares with her husband and threeyear-old daughter.
A two-shelf unit from Ikea shows off carefully selected books, photos and cameras, which include a Hasselblad and Polaroid SX-70 from the 1970s that belonged to her father.
“They are beautiful cameras and need to be seen,” says Bloch, who’s also given places of honour to a Contax film camera “that’s been around the world with me” and a new digital Fuji that she uses for travel.
The books are mostly about black-and-white photography, which she prefers, and provide inspiration when she needs it. The bottom shelf holds boxes of engagement and wedding photos and her mini wedding album from 2011.
The pictures were shot “by my
absolutely favourite photographer ever, Jose Villa,” who’s based in California, she says. “Every image is absolutely stunning and when I look at them I’m brought back instantly to that day. We were married in Cuba and our wedding was perfect.”
The arrangement of meaningful items helps her to focus and simplify things in her mind, says Bloch. The nod to the past also provides a contrast with the modern technology that drives her business venture.
“At work we use all the latest and greatest tech, which is all digital cameras, but I started in photography using film cameras. I love film and still shoot it to this day,” she says.
Even though her commercial office has reopened, Bloch still utilizes her home office.
“It’s wonderful to have an option and inspiring space at home to work from.”