Investing in Motherhood
Motherhood is a grand mystery and to photograph the unfolding of your personal experience is one of the great honors of my life. My hope is that while working together you find yourself in your very true nature; soaked in intuition, raw with your own power.
My personal experience through motherhood:
A short story
While I was pregnant with my first baby, I won a one-time mentoring session with a photographer I admired. She does a lot of commercial and editorial work - an industry I wished to be part of at the time.
I mentioned to her that I hoped to move in the direction of a career path similar to hers one day. Knowing I was pregnant for the first time, and having kids of her own, she advised me to stay open - that I might just surprise myself and enjoy lifestyle work more after becoming a mother.
No way. That was my first thought … no way.
Months later I had my photograph taken while I was pregnant (images by Coley + Co. below). Seeing myself in motherhood felt like a rewiring of my head and my heart. I feel that every time my photo is taken with my boys. Simply seeing myself in the role of “mother” takes the experience as a whole and the love it is wrapped in, to a deeper level within myself.
My message to you
I invite moms and moms-to-be into this space of motherhood photography because I think it is important. I would even be so bold to say it is a crucial part of witnessing your own rebirth.
I know how transformative becoming a mother was (and continues to be) for me and since photographing other women in the motherhood space, I witness this to be true time and time again. And my heartbreaks when women tell me their deep regrets around not having their photograph taken within the motherhood space.
My hope is that in taking time to honor yourself through making these photos, you see how unbelievably beautiful, whole and strong you are in this very moment - so you know that truth exists inside of you - especially on days when you may not feel it.
In my experience, motherhood can feel:
Expansive
Isolating
Exhausting
Euphoric
Overwhelming
Beautiful
Messy
And all the other feelings that come with a rebirth of the self.
Along with conversation, writing, and meditation, the medium of photography has been a powerful and beautiful way to help process this new life.
Seeing these images has helped me to:
see the joy through the tired eyes of my sleepless nights
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recognizing the new dynamics of who we are to one another
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helped me to recognize the otherworldly love within myself.
images by Asteria Photography, Coley & Co., Nicole Leon Miller, Frame The People
Becoming a mother has been the rawest and most deeply explorative
day-by-day, moment-by-moment, experience of. my. life.
How we feel during pregnancy, the way we choose to give birth, and the support we deserve in postpartum matters.
This is the beginning of a life. This is a re-birth of a mother. This is your family, your legacy.