WORKING
IT!
The Entrepreneurs, Executives and Businesswomen of ASC
An Interview with Lydia Sewell
Owner, Lydia Sewell Photography
By Aly Merritt
Lydia Sewell is the owner and founder
of a successful photography business
in Atlanta. She has an impressive
book of business and adores what
she does.
Aly Merritt is a former
copy editor with a residual
addiction to journalism.
She is currently a product
manager at SalesLoft, hosts
ATL Startup Village at
Atlanta Tech Village, and
sporadically blogs at www.
AlyintheATL.com.
The women of the Atlanta
Social Club are an incredibly
diverse, ta lented and ambitious
group. Each quarter, we
highlight a few of our members
who are reaching great success
in their chosen professions,
whether that’s curating an art
gallery, founding a company or
directing strategy for a high-
profile corporation. We admire
their drive and enthusiasm,
and want to share more about
the passion they bring to
their work.
“I’ve fallen in love with making people
feel beautiful when maybe they didn’t
think they were,” she says. “With
photography, I get to show people
time and time again how other people
and I see them.”
But if you’d asked her about her
dream job in high school, you’d have
gotten a different answer.
“Photography was always in the
back of my mind, but I never took
it seriously until life gave me some
difficult choices to make later on,”
Lydia says. “At the age of 15, I felt
called into the music ministry and so
I went to Lee University as a double
major in Music Education and Art
Education with a double minor in
Church Music and Religion.
REVEAL | Q3 2017
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“I was so sure I was meant to work at
a church somewhere and lead worship
but just after a year at my dream
school, I had to leave and come home.”
Lydia says she was angry with herself
and with God, and she just felt lost.
She moved home for a year and didn’t
paint, play her guitar, go to church
or sing. Instead, she worked several
jobs at the mall, and just went to and
from work.
“Overall, I was just a different person
that I didn’t like,” she says.
Lydia comes from a creative, multi-
talented family. Her mother is a
writer with interior design training
who designs weddings; her sister is a
painter known for elaborate murals
and also an event manager at Ponce
City Market; and her father is an
engineer and mechanic who “can
build anything from nothing.” Lydia
herself spent time painting, drawing
and taking art classes growing up,