Outdoor Fine Art Maternity Portraits: Ashley {Kelly Point Park, Portland, OR}
I look at these Fine Art Maternity Portraits that I created for Ashley in 2017 and I wish I could have had them made of me when I was pregnant.
True, photography has come a long way since 2010 during my first pregnancy. It never even occurred to me that I could celebrate my pregnancy in a way that captured my strength and beauty simultaneously. However, since then, this is exactly what my work aims to do. I want to provide a place for women where they can be their most relaxed and authentic self around me, so that we can create images that truly represent parts of themselves they never knew existed. I would even argue that during pregnancy is one of the most important times to commission a portrait session of yourself.
Nine months is entirely too long in some ways and simultaneously too short in others. Both of those were true for me during both of my pregnancies. I remember not loving the way in which everyone commented on my body in a way that left me feeling very self-conscious, much like what I remember feeling in my puberty years. Eeeesh. One of the things I did enjoy about being pregnant however, was that during pregnancy, I was more easily able to drop the negative body image baggage that I had previously carried. That journey is a discussion for another day, but there was something about the inevitability of my growing belly that allowed me to just “be” without the constant covering, fixing, and adjusting of my clothing to make sure I didn’t have any unseemly fat bulges. Having a belly was now somehow acceptable and the stores even carried clothing to allow for it!
Have you experienced any of this in your pregnancy? Regardless of if your answer is yes, no, or a combination of both, I believe women deserve a chance to capture, commemorate, and immortalize this fleeting period of 9 months, in a way that feels authentic and beautiful to them and to walk away with art for their walls which is a constant beautiful reminder of the positive aspects of pregnancy they’d like to focus on.
Contact me for a no-obligation 30 minute chat (in-person or virtual) to discuss all the things that make commission sessions with me different.
Ashley is wearing a custom hand-made ersey wrap dress, made specifically for Teresa’s client wardrobe.
