I am a documentary photography witnessing the real, the raw, the reverence in Motherhood.

Vessel for what is already there. Shifting the lens inward.

Photography for my wedding day was a non-negotiable. I knew it was one of my “musts”. Finding that right fit, style, and vibe was crucial for that feeling of comfort of knowing that the day your spending time, money, and energy on will be documented and then looked back on with reverence.

Fast forward 10 years, two kids later, I am building my family, reparenting myself as I live the universal paradox that everyone used to tell me: “the days are long but the years are short” As much as I cringe at cliches…well, I agree, it is true. But I don’t think this thought is finished. The acceptance of that fact is me not letting any time be wasted. To understand that I have a full plate, I have a business to run, I have kids to feed, relationships to tend to, as well as caring for myself. Within that, as I had my own motherhood journey, I am doing as much as I can to prioritize being present with my kids regardless. To show up, and document these treasured, lived, raw, and hard-beautiful days.

As I have embarked on my photography business, I have started to wonder why wedding days are held in such regard - in terms of price, the coverage, the top nonnegotiable being hiring a "photographer” used to document that one day. It is a special day - a revered day. I am so thankful for my wedding photos. I am not saying it shouldn’t get the lime light, but I feel this gap.

I am curious that if we hold that day up in the timeline of our years… how much does documenting that day cover…it is a dot. 24 hours. A start. A step. But what comes next?

Why is it that we stop prioritizing the sacred and beautiful days between the “big” life moments. I don’t think we conciously would ever respond to someone asking us “Hey, would you rather document your kids growing up? I think that is why we have that gap. We haven’t seen it done. We haven’t asked those questions. We haven’t allowed ourselves as woman to show up as we are without the filters or perfect pose or picutre. I am guilty of all of the above. But I am finding out “YOU CANNOT EDIT MOTHERHOOD.” Oh how I wish that were true. But it wouldn’t be motherhood without the mess, the chaos, the highest highs, biggest rewards. So hwat is your part in this shift, well, seeing what is in front of you. What you have built. What makes you feel, you. What is the DNA of your family. Where is your focus? How are spending these prcious days? That question for me cuts deep as my first 4 years of motherhood were straight survival. From food stamps to never sleeping, I was in the thicke of hormones and hurting. Feeling nothing except this nagging feeling of is anyone else feeling like this? AM I the ONLY ONE? Eventually, as I shared, I came to find out. I wasn’t. It was just not shared. Talk about or shown. ANd now since 6 years have passed, there has been some much more suppoort out there and more conversations and more connecitons. So I am showing up in this gap moving that momentum even more forward. Can we be a womanhood that shows up as we are so we can connect through authentivity and vulneranily so that our daughters never have to ask “AM I THE ONLY ONE? Rather, Who should I turn to?”

It won’t be the big holidays or anniversaries that we will come back to at the end of our time, it will be the in-between. The mundane. The smell dinner and sounds of voices around the dinner table. The conversations in the are after school pick-up. The way it felt to turn on Alexa and have an epic dance party in the kitchen. Or how the backyard felt like their oyster. There are so many types of days in raising children. We as mothers feel it. We go remember our highs and lows.

I remember that viral video that went around of a mother on a podcast being interviewed about becoming a mom; there was a point in the conversation she broke down and was crying saying how it felt like a she had been “banished” .. that once a woman becomes a mom, there is this dissonance and lack of support our world has for mothers—we are on our own now. Good luck. Isolation being the last thing motherhood was ever suppose to be about. And I have felt this gap. I believe art and creativyt is one of the best bridges that allows this “other world” to come into play—something that hasnt been seen can now come to be just byy the expression of someone’s ideas or creativty. My aim is that. My documentary style approach is what that is all about. To make banishment feel like belonging. To make motherhood more visible in the real ways. To help undo this “pressure” of mothers needing to have a perfect house to have it be photographed. For mother’s to have fancy matching clothes to be photographed. For mother’s to have all their shit together. It isn’t true. And an unnecessary belief that is no longer serving our communities. How can a photo do all that? Well, we will have to wait and see, becuase the power is in what is front of my camera. It is you. IT is your story mama. It is your home. It is your routine. It is your season. It is your messy car that gets your children to the doctors, to school, to the park, to your favorite ice cream shop. It is your kitchen sink and under your dining table floors that indicate how much you nourish your kids. It is your bed that holds up and comforts and provides rest to you and the other three stoaways that have made their home there becuase it feels safe. It is your safety. It is your presence. It is your touch. It is your smile. It is your laugh. It is your embrace. And becuase we are human. Nothing will ever be perfect. We may get the privilege of aplanned “wedding day” but let’s do life lived—in the ordinary, the mess, the mundane, the in-between, the simplicity, the awareness, the gratitude.

It is the memeories and experines that fill those days in those spaces we create.

Why is it so hard to hire a family photographer? I am guilty of it. Money? Time? Energy? Am I too bsy? As a mom, it is all of the above. I am guilty; I didnt priotize famly photos until this past year and my kids are 4 & 6. I have a bunch of photos in my phone that I took of them in those year prior, but none that were intentional or journaled or have me in them.

I asked myself that question, and money is a partial ansser, but really the root of it is not feeling like Not having a perfect house?

I want to bring awareness to the days spent together as a family. How it is more than a dot; it is a documenting photos filling empty frames, & the flipping sound echoing the walls of your home as your kids thumb through photo albums of them, of memories made, and seasons passed.