A few years ago, my client reached out through Facebook because she realized something heartbreaking—she wasn’t in any photos with her son.
As a new mother, she’d slipped behind the camera, documenting everyone else while quietly disappearing from her own story. She told me she used to model, but after having her baby, the idea of stepping in front of the lens felt foreign, even painful.
She was missing once-in-a-lifetime moments. The kind of photos that help us stay connected to who we are and who we love.
But here’s the thing: she wasn’t just a mom. She was vibrant, radiant, and standing at the beginning of an entirely new chapter. So why did the camera suddenly feel so uncomfortable?
During her session, we uncovered the truth: she was struggling to embrace her new identity as a mother. And that’s something no one talks about—how identity shifts can destabilize us, how the last thing we want is to see ourselves in that raw transition.
But the camera helps with that. It gives you footing. It grounds you in the new version of yourself.
By the end of the shoot, she told me she felt ready to step back into her family photos. Not hiding, not avoiding—present. A few years later, when we caught up, she shared something that stopped me in my tracks: “Photography healed the parts of me I’d forgotten. I remembered I exist. I remembered I can live boldly.”
That’s the power of choosing to be seen.
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