A client’s perspective

The first time someone photographed me I almost cancelled three times. Not because I didn't want to. Because wanting it felt vulnerable in a way I hadn't fully prepared for. Being looked at is one thing. Being captured is another. A photograph stays. It exists somewhere after you leave the room and that fact sat in my chest the whole drive over.

Stuart was calm in a way that helped. No urgency, no performance, no sense that we were racing toward anything. Just a space, good light, and someone who talked to me like a person for an hour as I had my hair and makeup done. When the camera came out I didn't feel objectified. I felt seen, which are two things I used to think were the same and have since learned are completely different.

Something happens when you stop trying to look a certain way and express yourself front of a lens. I found it by accident, maybe thirty minutes in, when I forgot to be self conscious for a moment and just was. He said that changed the whole session. I believe him. I didn't recognize myself in some of the photos at first. Not in a bad way. Just in a this is a version of me I don't usually get to see way. The version that exists when nobody's watching, except someone was, and somehow that made it more true rather than less. I have them on my phone. I don't show most people. But I look at them sometimes and feel something close to pride. I did it. That I let myself be seen like that. That I exist in those shots exactly as I am, and whoever took them thought that was worth capturing.

That's enough for me

Miss D

Note this is not her photo, she chose to keep hers private