People and Stories: Exploring My Why for Creating Narrative Portraits

Two things are required for portrait photography. A person or persons and a camera. With these two things, a portrait can take an infinity of forms. Selfie, headshot, candid, couple, family, traditional, environmental, corporate, fashion, lifestyle, you name it but the type of portrait that has my heart is the narrative portrait.

My Narrative Portrait Origin Story:

I started creating narrative portraits before I knew that was what I was creating. I had a nicely growing photography business in Brooklyn before the pandemic. When the pandemic started and my work was suddenly canceled or postponed there was a lot of uncertainty and we were all going a little stir crazy in our apartment. In the evening after the kids went to bed, I would escape upstairs to our friend’s apartment. They had left town and graciously told us we could use their home as an extension of our apartment to work from home. So I would go up there at night and plan and stage elaborate portraits. I started combining all of my favorite things. Making things, fashion, styling, creative problem-solving, stories, and of course photography. These portraits became my creative outlet and kept me sane in those early pandemic days. Sometimes I would do self-portraits, and other times I would set the stage inspired by aspects of our home life and then I would bring my kids up in the morning to photograph them In the sets I had created. Soon my daughter caught on and started working with me to design photoshoots with her. This was the beginning of my deep love of narrative portraits.

Crafting Narratives:

I have been making things for as long as I can remember. My mom is an artist and I grew up in an amazing community of artists and creators. I have been surrounded by materials of all kinds to make things since my earliest days when I would crawl around unraveling my mom’s bobbins for tapestry weaving. My toys were art supplies and everything could be used to create something. I never know what a new Narrative Portrait will need until after the initial design interview. Whether it's painting backdrops, crafting intricate garments, or adorning subjects with whimsical accessories, I revel in the unpredictable journey of creation.

Fashion Design:

My background is in fashion design I started out working in apparel in Vancouver Canada, then baby shoes, then designing women’s footwear for years in NYC before leaving the fashion industry to pressure photography. People sometimes have the impression that fashion design work is about coming up with new wild fun things, that design is only loosely based on what is practical or everyday. In reality, being a designer means constantly listening, gathering, and interpreting information to determine a design direction that will best suit the buyer or customer’s needs/wants/desires. Design work requires empathy, the ability to share and understand the feelings of others, not just the customer but also the production team and the people physically making the product. You need to be able to work on many levels simultaneously to design, understand production, and weigh all the elements including costs, availability of materials, and logistics of actually making the product. It is like going to work and constructing a jigsaw puzzle with changing parts every single day and l loved that kind of work.

Capturing Stories:

I have always wanted to know what people are about. What interests them, what brings them joy, their life experience. This is a strange conundrum for a natural introvert who didn’t do much speaking as a child. I keenly remember being bewildered by the kind of interactions I was asked to have with other people, “Hi, (insert name), It’s nice to see you, how are you?” My 5-year-old brain was bewildered. What was the reason for this? I knew they were there, they knew I was there, and I could gather a fair bit about how they are by simply observing. The words seemed redundant and pointless. I did a lot of watching, spent a lot of time with animals, and was confident we were communicating just fine without words.

Today, talking to people is a huge part of what I do but I still love the idea of creating a form of communication that is nonverbal. Portraits that tell a story can tell that story for generations. No language is required.

Authentic Connection:

It seems right now people are struggling to find genuine connections with each other. We prioritize knowing where another person stands on social or political issues over truly knowing the person. What is their day-to-day like, how do they spend their time and what do they like to do? What are they struggling with, or excelling at? What worries them or brings joy? I also see a crisis of creative confidence. I love working with people to tell their story. I think people are fascinating and their stories are amazing working with them to tell their story is such a humbling experience. I am forever honored that people will share their stories with me to co-create these artworks.

Practically speaking, narrative photography allows me to blend all my passions and skill sets into a singular canvas. Each narrative portrait presents a unique puzzle, requiring me to draw on my various skill sets.

Every Narrative portrait is different because each client is different. The beauty of the co-creative process is that the process will adapt to suit you. My role is to take the information you give me and transform it into something visual. This exploration and collaboration is an experience that goes beyond the traditional portrait. It's an opportunity to capture not just an image but a story, a moment, and a piece of art that reflects you.