Artist Statement

I am a photographer who has lived in Emeryville since 1992, and I have a studio near Lake Merritt. Since 2015 I've specialized in a natural style of boudoir, which is a very personal and often intimate area of photography. My clients often describe their experience as empowering and liberating, that it helps them reclaim their self-confidence. I prefer to think of what I do as providing a space where people can give themselves permission to celebrate who they are. At almost every turn in life, we're told in ways large and small that we're not allowed to love ourselves and be fully ourselves. Boudoir, on the other hand, is a place of yes.

Most of us don't usually like photos of ourselves, myself included. All of that changes in my sessions: for perhaps the first time ever, my clients get to see themselves in images they absolutely love. I help clients who are every race, age (well, 18+), gender, sexuality, and physical ability. The biggest surprise clients discover is how much fun the experience is -- even if they've seen the many reviews from my previous clients saying so, their natural instinct is to think, "well, that's that person -- I don't know how well I'll do." And the secret is that all of those people felt the same way before their session.

In my piece for this year's exhibition, shown is a client who initially came to me with his wife for a couple session; he was so inspired by that experience, he came back a month later for a solo session. We explored the ideas of feminine and masculine (or bottom and top) kinds of posing. This pose is often more thought of as a feminine/bottom type of energy, but his body is hairy and he has a prominent scar, which makes the image feel more masculine at the same time. We both loved the result, and I'm grateful to this client for allowing me to submit it for this year's exhibition.

Boudoir can be a very vulnerable kind of place, but opening up like that can lead to profound changes in how you feel about yourself. Though I specialize in other areas of photography as well (headshots, food, and more), boudoir is far and away the most personally meaningful work I've ever done.