Costa Christ ’12 was about to graduate with a degree in accounting when he realized it wasn’t the career for him. As he was interested in photography, his then-girlfriend Jackie Christ ’12 drained her savings to help him purchase a camera and lens.
“I said, ‘I don’t know how, but I will absolutely repay you,’” he recalls.
He kept his promise. Now married, together they run his architectural and fine art photography businesses.
Costa Christ’s break into architectural photography happened thanks to SMU, when Jon Altschuler ’94 hired him to shoot property listings for his commercial real estate business, Altschuler and Company.
“Jon would never have hired me if I wasn’t an SMU grad,” Costa Christ says. “I went in for a photography position with an accounting degree, and he didn’t bat an eye.”
Costa Christ struck out on his own in 2014 and launched Strictly Natural Light. After running it solo for a few years, he asked Jackie Christ, who was working as a CPA, to help run the business. Given that the couple had studied together at SMU, working with one another came naturally. “It was like we were going back to our roots,” Jackie Christ says.
When she joined, they “immediately compounded the amount of business [they] took in,” he says. In Strictly Natural Light’s 10 years, Costa Christ has photographed over 3,000 homes and has been published in Architectural Digest, Southern Living and Forbes.
Now they’re pursuing their creativity even further with their fine art photography venture. Costa Christ Art started with photos from their vacations, with Jackie Christ finding the unique spots for him to shoot.
“Jackie’s not the one pushing the button on the camera, but she’s getting me to these places that I would never in a million years find without her,” Costa Christ says.
The business has since expanded to working with brands like Porsche and is currently represented by Christopher Martin Gallery in Dallas.
While SMU played a significant role in the Christs’ personal story, they credit the University for a lot of their success. Not only did they take several “life-changing” classes like business negotiations, marketing and business law, but Costa Christ says the University opened many opportunities.
How did SMU impact your journey?
“I was able to land jobs and earn the respect of clients that would have otherwise never met me because of SMU’s stellar reputation,” he says.
Costa Christ ’12