Meet Jenn

I’ve always loved stories and in my previous life as a social worker, my clients told me their stories and I would help them see things from a fresh perspective. Now, with my camera, I show you your family story. You might be too busy and in the middle of everything to appreciate how special and incredible the little moments are, even the fights and hair-pulling, but I can help.

I want to document the fun times, the in-between times, and the messy times for you. My kids are almost adults and I always had my camera with me. Now they both have a million photos of their childhoods- smiling, sad, angry, tired, at the park, in our toy-filled home, and wherever we went. They each have their own one-of-a-kind story of their childhoods: the good, the bad, the messy, and all the love.

So, no, you don’t have to clean up your house or lose the baby weight, (I’m still working on that one ;-) ), or do anything except be yourselves, because that’s what you’ll want to remember, and that’s what they’ll want to remember. The real you, and your real family story. Let’s embrace our unfiltered lives and enjoy the ride.

I want you to have photographs on your walls and photo albums showing who you really are- to see and appreciate your family and everyone’s personalities through the years. A true history of your family, to show how you are thriving within the sanctuary of your family.

How did I become interested in documentary family photography?

One of my favorite family photos is from an excruciatingly painful photo session.

I wasn’t able to get a desperately needed haircut, my toddler overslept and there was no time to eat lunch that day, as we trudged to the park in our matching outfits clutching a fresh bag of goldfish crackers. As I was laying in the grass, blowing the hair out of my eyes, throwing goldfish crackers at the kid on my back in full-on tantrum mode, I was hoping we would get just one good shot. As I heard my son scream even louder than before, I started laughing, realizing this was ridiculous. WHY were we doing this and WHO were we doing this for? Matching outfits? Laying down on the grass? That’s not us. And even if we got the perfect photo, (which was definitely NOT going to happen), every time I saw it, all I would be able to think about is what a miserable time my family had. One by one, we all started laughing at the ridiculousness of the situation, except Jack; he was too hungry and tired to find any humor in the situation. Luckily our photographer kept clicking the shutter. That was basically the end of traditional photos for us, and those are some of my favorite family photos. Because they show the real us. Mouths stuffed with goldfish crackers, tear-stained cheeks, trying not to break out into laughter at my boy’s misery. That was us, and now, we’re the older versions of those people. Not how we’re ‘supposed’ to be. These are the memories that become the subject of family legends and lots of laughter.

And unfortunately, this amazing photo has been lost on an old computer somewhere because we never printed it out. We were going to do it ‘next time’.

That’s why I want you to have photographs and not just digital files.