the photographer + the magazine
Why inkedfingers?
In many countries, casting a vote was represented by an inked finger. To be effective at bringing about change, we first must understand we vote with our time and our dollar. Every moment we are writing the story of our lives. Are we aware of how we spend our days? Do we recognize where we place our gaze? Who do we allow to steal our time? Where do we choose to walk, with whom do we consort, and what do we call our truth, that we internalize? Did we meet the farmer who sells the milk to see if it is bacteria laden? Did we walk in the shoes of the woman in the Middle East that longs for her home?
We do not see things as they are. We see them as we are. This is what I have the privilege of documenting. Without much effort, this is how I can teach people how “to see.”
I'm so grateful I haven't paid a penny to advertise since 2008. All of the business then and now has come from past happy clients and/or social media, a testimony to the incredible people I work with every day.
I attended the school of journalism. I am the editor of Inkedfingers Magazine, a photographer and mama to Emiliana and baby Dotty.
One of the highlights of documenting is being flown around the globe, to see, to preserve, to tell the story. The Middle East, Tokyo are a few highlights, and the shooting of Eric Silverstein's cookbook memoir, owner of The Peached Tortilla and Bar Peached. My shooting weddings for 7+ years gifted me the confidence and belief that at the end of the day, I am photographing essentially two things: light and people.
It has taken me almost ten years to realize it all boils down to this.
1) How do I put this [whatever I am shooting] in the best light?
2) It is getting to know and better understand the people, whether in front of or behind my lens, asking the right questions and learning more about what they decide to pour their hearts into [their business, families, etc].
I've completed Instagram campaigns with Tiffany & Co, Samsung, Gap Kids, to name a few, since 2011, and that same year was on Mashable's Top 15 Instagram Photographers, in the same light as MTV and Burberry. I frequently get asked how I have 100K+ followers on Instagram.
By a serendipitous twist of fate I was put on Instagram's suggested users list in 2011, barely a year after the company began and far before such structured algorithms. It was even before they actually informed you that you made the suggested users list. It feels weird for me to say I was an early adapter of the Instagram campaign. Before my joining the app in 2010, a few weeks after the app premiered, I had just started my photography company, shooting primarily weddings and portraits.
Having lived in Austin for over 15 years, I whole-heartedly support local. My heart and soul live with small businesses as I am one myself. Peached Tortilla, Peached Social House, House of Margot Blair, Summer Moon Coffee, Define Body are a few brands here in Austin I've had the privilege of helping to build/photograph.
It's a pleasure to help you find your voice and then give this gift of photographs that we create together.
I believe every job is a collaboration.
Your heart, my art, and lots of open communication.
I've traveled from NYC to the Middle East on campaigns, oftentimes with my daughters and sometimes with our beloved nanny. I feel it is the biggest gift in this lifetime that I get to do the two things I love with my whole heart: raise daughters and get paid to create.
Thank you for trusting me to create moments that define these things you pour your heart into.
The joy is mine.
I N S T A G R A M
