I was in a group discussion the other day and myself and another woman were talking about leaving our homes. Homes that we put blood, sweat, and tears into (literally). We both had different stories, but stood on such similar ground.
Though she had to leave her home of 20 years for reasons different than mine, we cried together. We felt each other’s stories in our bones.
Read MoreI was recently asked to have my work featured in a gallery on Palm Beach Island, called Haven.
This has been a dream of mine for so long. As someone who went to an art school for collage and has been photographing since the age of 16, it felt like such a missing piece to my artistic puzzle.
But, I was also excited for other reasons. I felt like this would give me the platform to show women something different.
Read MoreMany of my clients are art collectors. They visit museums when they travel, work with art buyers, and take pride in the art they display in their home.
Yet, I still hear reservation when I speak to them about their session.
“I don’t know if I could hang a photograph of myself on my wall.”
“Isn’t that vain?”
Read MoreI’ve been putting together a vision board for when I’m able to do another creative, personal expression through my art.
While my heart is photographing women and telling their stories, sometimes my soul needs to stretch and play so that I can reset and renew. This makes me better for the clients that I photograph.
Many creatives have gone into depression during this time because we haven’t been able to create like we usually do.
It’s our release. It’s our way out of darkness. It’s a way of telling other’s stories while telling our own.
Being a photographer is engrained in my being. To be able to document someone’s story that then becomes art in their home, it’s at times indescribable.
Read MoreI still get people who don’t understand boudoir. They think it’s purely sexual, vain, or pointless. I can keep putting up blog posts that explain why they are so much more than that. I can try to explain it in my own words (which I’ve done several times). But, what I think speaks the loudest are words from other women who have been photographed by me.
This one hits way too close to home for me. M (we’ll call her) isn’t sharing the photographs with the public because of her job. I reached out to her and asked if she would be willing to share her story, though. I told her that her words might really need to be read by someone who is in the depths of hell. I wish that more women had talked about their struggles when I was in my marriage. There were so many times I felt shameful and alone. E is allowing me to share one photo and her words.
I want to point out that not every woman that I photograph is “broken” or going through hard times. I photograph women who are engaged, married, divorced, have kids, can’t have kids, don’t want kids, have done boudoir sessions before, have never done boudoir sessions before, and so on. But, this is E’s story and it’s a pretty damn powerful one.
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