Fifteen years of wedding photography. Fifteen years of love, beauty and art. It’s striking to stop and realize how deeply my feet are planted in this THING. Hundreds of weddings and many more hundreds of family shoots. Twenty twenty-five has been the most expansive year of my career. Lucinda and Evangeline keep growing up and as they lean less on me, I’ve been able to take on more commercial work and dip my toes in social media management. It’s been another record year of shooting, too.
The vision behind my work becomes more and more simple as. I go. Happiness, movement, a slight tilt toward embracing the imperfect and in-between spaces. I used to believe that adding complexity for the sake of complexity or trend for the sake of trend was the answer. I used to believe that it was necessary to insert myself into a shoot so that my work could fit neatly into a perfectly curated social media feed that doesn’t look like anyone else’s- and yet looks JUST LIKE everyone else’s. It’s been freeing to release all of that and focus more on collaboration, letting shoots proceed with a sense of ease and bringing another person’s vision to life. I’ve given myself permission to say ‘look at the camera and smile’ without worrying that I’m not pushing the edges enough. I’m continuing to learn to follow, to flow.
LIFE. Life, man. Despite continuing to wade through a divorce after a 16 year long marriage, becoming a single parent in and undergoing a scary health challenge this summer that required driving straight from a wedding to the hospital for an emergency surgery, this has been a year of absolute beauty. I keep whispering to myself: 'do only what’s necessary-let it be-let’s allow this to BE. Like my work, I’ve aimed to embrace happiness, movement, a slight tilt toward embracing the imperfect and in-between spaces. It’s all stripped back, no complication for the sake of it. There were quiet mornings snuggling my girls over over coffee, countless trips to lakes, meals with my friends around bonfires, copious amounts of laying on the floor laughing and learning to be loved and to love in a way that feels stronger, braver and sturdier.
Twenty twenty-six is already under way. My first wedding of the year is next week with many more to follow. I’ve added an associate shooter (say hello to Allexsi) who will be taking on weddings of her own. In life, I’ll ask for nothing more than what already is. Cups overflow. Starts burn bright.
Sending you all the love, peace and stripped down beauty that your hearts can handle.
-Jess
