I have been asked by many people how and why I got into photography; I would love to share the story of how my camera and I became “hitched”!
My interest in photography began when I was 14 with my dad's PENTAX medium format camera. It was a bit too heavy for me to hold steady, but it didn’t take long for me to overcome that challenge and discover the joy of capturing life around me. What was previously mundane now seized my imagination: my grandpa’s quiet garden, a curious stray cat peeking through rooftop branches, birds flocking elegantly overhead, grandpa’s beautiful calligraphy scattered across his library desk.
Second small garden and grandpa’s bonsai in snow. 2011
I will never forget how I felt the first time I held my first developed photographs; it was truly magical. I had tangibly stamped a moment that would survive forever through intangible time. Years later I was able to give words to that magical feeling when I read Susan Sontag’s On Photography: “To photograph is to appropriate the thing photographed. It means putting oneself into a certain relation to the world that feels like knowledge—and, therefore, like power.”
The camera gave me a new way to see the world, and my curious interest quickly bloomed into love. From that moment on I borrowed the camera from my dad so frequently that he gave into my persistent badgering and gifted it to me. To this day I am thankful to him, thankful for his gift to that persistent and curious girl who never gave up on doing what she loved.
These old photos have been scanned many years ago, therefore not in high-res format.
Photographing my surroundings enables me to create distance between me and the world, to observe and recreate it with emotion and imagination in exactly the way I wish. Photography lets me fiddle with the scale and the look of the world; images are reduced, blown up, cropped, and retouched.I can take a transient moment, pin it down with my objective observation, and relish it forever.
As a wedding photographer I continue to draw upon the original vibe and chemistry that drew me into photography. There is a visual pleasure in photography that continues to thrill and obsess me. I visit museums frequently for visual inspiration. I devour books on art criticism, photography criticism, and photography theory. I continue to learn from the masters and apply those lessons to my work; Rubens of the Baroque tradition, Paul Cézanne of post-impressionism, and Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard of Les Nabis are all my inspirations and soul ambrosia. They each inspire me to approach photography with romance and a fine-art sensibility.
All these experiences have led me here and continue to feed my love of capturing the intimacy of those in love who have decided to spend the rest of their lives together. I especially enjoy photographing couples that are attracted by my style, for I believe we are kindred spirits.