Self Love in a gilded age

I usually stay out of the weeds, but this rant has been forming at the pit of my throat for awhile now.

 This article just made it bubble over like a volcano.  

Here goes: stop messing with your face because you think you need to look a certain way.

Looking at social media faces and filters is BRAINWASHING US into believing that that is what beauty is.

Beauty standards are going to be different in five years.

Stop ruining your mental health and physical health to conform to what the masses have decided is beauty this decade.  

There will always be someone prettier smarter younger etc. 

There will never be another YOU. EVERRRRRRRR. 

Stop trying to be someone else.

You do not have to look like Kylie Jenner. Or Bella Hadid. Stop telling yourself you are ugly.

Want to change your face? Great. Do it because you want to not because you’ve been told that’s what you want. 

I’m no cultural expert, not an esthetician, definitely not a beauty influencer. But as a photographer I search every day for things that are BEAUTIFUL. I document the beautiful moments in people’s lives. The clouds in the sky, the shadows that move across my living room walls in the morning, the way my friend smiles at her baby, the way my brother laughs while kissing his fiancé, my kids giggling over old vines they used to watch.  

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN BEAUTIFUL AND VARNISHED

Here is a very typical scenario: family photos: the husband doesn’t realllllly wanna be there but is a super good sport because he loves his fam and I’ve promised it’ll only take half an hour. The wife REALLY wants proof of life for herself and pics where she looks good and wants to remember her baby’s chunky fingers, her teenage daughter’s smile, and wants a photo to hang in the dining room where she can look at her lovely infuriating heartbreakingly amazing family every day. Except she is so self conscious that she can hardly calm herself down, thinking how awful she’s looked in the last five selfies she’s taken without filter that she trashed them immediately.

I’m guilty of this too. Maybe more than anyone else. Not joking.  

Stop thinking we need to fix our faces.  

Stop letting yourself be willingly brainwashed.  

Placing the whole of your mental health and your self perceptions in the hands of TIKTOK and bad photos your ex took of you isn’t good.  

We don’t knowingly do this, but it’s so so easy to slip into. FIGHT IT.

And speaking of all of this, here’s my pitch: Lighting matters, angles matter, focal length of the lens, the way your body is positioned matters. I know how to use all these things to give you photos of you that look good. I can literally make anyone in the world look their absolute worst with bad lighting. It’s not even hard.  

My only goal when taking photos is that you are happy with them.

ends February 9th

Annual Sale

Women’s {self-celebration} portraits

Wherever you want. In a field, in the river, in your home, in a pizza joint. Boudoir, super fancy dress you always wanted to wear but have no occasion to, jeans and an old shirt, whatever. Sexy, free spirit, reading books, sitting in a field of flowers, with a horse, pretending you're in Paris at a coffee shop.  

Let’s let our inner child (I kinda hate that term but whatever) do what she wants.  

Print them, put them into an album, share on socials, or keep them just for yourself.

{Retainer now, book for a date in the next calendar year}