A SHIFT IN FOCUS: Postpartum Documentary Photography

Two summers ago, I found myself scared to death as my husband underwent emergency surgery at Martha Jefferson Hospital. The following week he received a diagnosis of stage 3b colon cancer. Our lives flipped.

At that time, I was working with birth clients. While I paused new clientele, I attended the last contracted birth only days before my husband’s second surgery, after a long several months of supporting him through chemo. That surgery, fortunately, marked the end of his necessary treatment. As I was emotionally exhausted from the previous months, I committed myself to a break from attending births.

Here I am now, a year-ish later, and I’ve come to the weighty decision to pause attending births indefinitely. As I’ve done this past year, I’ll make exceptions for bereavement clients whenever possible, but I’m no longer able to take on regular birth clients.

While this has been a hard decision as I’ve devoted the last eight years of my life to birth work, I’m excited to be able to continue using my skillset in working with expecting and postpartum families. My focus of birth photography has shifted to solely photography for families in their early years of parenthood—especially the newly postpartum! I will continue documenting their stories while holding space during these tender chapters of their lives. I will always be more than a “just a photographer,” laughing and celebrating with clients, or holding hands and sitting with their tears. All stories will I honor.