hello,

One day, back when I was in elementary school, I remember my mother bringing home a painting. It was matted and framed in oak. 

The painting felt a bit mysterious. The sky was weighed down with clouds and the lone woman, front and center, looked out over a choppy ocean as she stood among sand dunes. She wore a white dress that billowed precariously in the wind and her blonde hair was secured in a long braid. We couldn’t see her face, but the painting portrayed a feeling of freedom and release. 

I expected my mother to hang the painting in the living room, but instead she cleared space on the kitchen table.

With care, she began to disassemble the frame.

She took out some paints and started mixing a dark, dark brown. Delicately, she painted over the hair until it resembled a shade more... familiar.

I remember sitting there at the table, watching in awe, as my mother transformed a painting she just bought, into a personalized piece of artwork.

Each time I would walk by that painting, I would remember the purposeful disassembling and re-creation.

Looking back, I think that was my first experience with understanding the importance of representation. I think this one instance, coupled with countless others, built a foundation that turned into an overarching personal mission – as a former teacher and, now, as a brand photographer.

So when I reflected on my journey with photography and how I niched down to create a brand photography business with a mission to photograph women-owned and BIPOC-owned businesses, that was very, very intentional. And when I try my best to make sure every client of mine feels beautiful, valued, seen, and heard, that is again very, very intentional.

In some ways, the work I am doing is therapeutic. It's work that I wish younger Adeline, my inner child, would have seen more of. I wish I would’ve seen more women in business, more people of color in power. Historically, and not terribly long ago, my clients and I wouldn’t have been able to independently open our own checking accounts. We wouldn’t have been in control of our own finances. Our business ideas would’ve remained merely dreams.

And because of the continued, very current, systemic oppression and obstacles, I think there is incredible healing each time someone from an underrepresented and oppressed group steps into their power. They are not only becoming more self-empowered, but they are also empowering their own small community. They are showing their own community what is possible, what spaces they can occupy, and, in a lot of ways, they are giving back to their communities as a leader and as a connector. Taking a step back, it is possible to see how revolutionary our work is.

My mother and I never talked about that painting. We never talked about the deliberate change to see ourselves in the art that decorated our homes, the deliberate change to fundamentally feel seen, period. I just silently observed and when she reads this, that’ll be the first time she’ll know how much that one moment changed me.