The first time I knew phototherapy was going to change my life's course, I had only just picked up my camera again after a ten year hiatus.
A friend saw images from my first session back with a local burlesque performer and wanted me to shoot with her too. It was a new experience, but not an unfamiliar one from my time as an RMT: she was visibly uncomfortable in her body.
I had two choices:
I could stop the session because I didn't want my friend to be uncomfortable, or
I could draw on my decade of experience and knowledge around clients with body image and trauma, and change the way we were photographing to make space for her to sit in that discomfort while supported, potentially to grow with it…
I chose option 2. "What are you feeling right now?" I asked her.
"Like I want to hide", was her honest response.
So that's where we started. I asked her to show me what hiding would look like, and I took the photo: her hands covering her face, eyes shut tight to block out the world... and my camera.
Step-by-step, we worked one frame at a time in documenting what she was feeling, and 30 minutes later, she was running around my studio yelling and laughing and trusting in this new process.
And I just knew my work and the way I approached photography would never be the same.
Get ready to deepen your photography and hold space with clients in a new way.
We'll be diving into theories, case studies, getting vulnerable and creating powerful images over two days of education, connection and creativity.
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