As far back as I can remember, photography has always been my passion…my artistic outlet. Starting with my first Polaroid camera when I was ten, to a film Canon SLR at age sixteen, and a digital Nikon SLR at age…well let’s just say…several years later. I especially love taking photos of people.
My love affair with photography didn’t really begin until I discovered the darkroom. In fact, my high school teachers would have probably described it as more of a sick obsession. I joined the school newspaper as a staff photographer and quickly became the photo editor. In addition, I took a job after school at a local Montessori school, just so I could photograph the children. I would develop my own film and make prints for the parents. I even enjoyed a stint as the babysitter for a famous National Geographic Photographer! Now that was inspiring.
Years later, I was off to college…Canon in hand (of course!). In between my “required” classes, I took every photography course they offered. I was also elected to the Student Senate and the Housing Council, where I was asked to do all of the Student Government body portraits! My sophomore year in college, I was approached by my French Professor who convinced me that I absolutely had to study abroad (smart man). So about six months later, my Canon and I were off to Paris. Talk about material! I don’t think I ever put my camera down. It was amazing.
Very shortly after arriving in Paris, I met the man of my dreams. No really, we have been married for 16 years now and have three children! After living in Paris for about two years, we decided to move to my husband’s home country of Morocco. A beautiful exotic country in Northern Africa, just south of Spain across the Mediterranean Sea, Morocco is absolutely breathtaking!! I thought that France was an adventure, believe me, I had no idea! The landscape, the culture, the architecture, the food, the clothing, the markets, the people…all unbelievably beautiful…it really borders on sensory overload!
After the birth of our first daughter, we decided to pack up our little family and move to the United States. We moved back to my hometown of Madison. After several years of student life, motherhood, and a “real job,” I decided to rekindle my relationship with my first love… photography. My husband offered me a digital Nikon SLR camera and I haven’t stopped clicking since. Today, my camera is more high tech and my darkroom is strictly digital, but the process is still as exciting as it was all those years ago. After years of photographing weddings, family events, and portraits of all kinds, I decided to go professional.
To me, photos are our memories, a permanent record of who we are and where we come from. Photos not only record what we looked like at a given moment in time, but a good photograph reminds us of how we felt the moment the picture was taken. An even better photograph, reveals to us what someone else was feeling. There are very few things in life that can give us such pleasure.
~ Wendy