I was born in Los Angeles, California. My birthdate is June 11, 1972.
I got my Bachelor’s of Science in Biology from Northwestern State University in Louisiana, in 1997. I left Louisiana with my husband and moved to Nashua, New Hampshire.
When my son was born in 2001 I went through post partum depression. At that point I desperately needed to find joy outside of motherhood, so a friend suggested I take up photography because he had an old camera, or at least try it. I turned him down at first because it seemed too foreign to me. As time went on I became more desperate and agreed.
I shot my first roll of color film, turned it in for processing and printing, and sat quietly in the car not expecting much. I thumbed through my first set of prints and sat quietly for a bit. I thought to myself „If I adjust how I frame it and work on the focus, with different subjects the next time…“. I bought more film and shot more, feeding my scientific side and preponderance to experiment.
„Oh! Let’s try black and white!“. I was completely hooked after that.
It was that way for a number of years. Years teaching myself some of the science of photography. I had always shot in auto mode, terrified to try manual. I had a mentor for a short while who kept encouraging me to take the leap and shoot with manual exposure. Eventually I did take that leap, which took some falling down but I learned and never looked back. In 2002 my husband and I were fortunate to be able to rent a space that doubled as my portrait studio and community art gallery. I also participated in our art exhibits, selling several prints to the public. In 2007 I started a group on Facebook called Black Female Photographers, which has flourished and grown to an incredible network Black women professionals and aspiring professional photographers, over 600 members from around the world. I am still it’s Group Admin.
After several years of teaching myself all that I could learn on my own I felt I reached a stagnant point in my shooting. I felt that I couldn’t progress as a photographer by merely learning on my own. I needed formal training in the art of photography from professionals in a classic, structured setting. I enrolled at the New England School of Photography in Boston in winter of 2009 but found it not to be a good fit for me. I found the Boston University Center for Digital Imaging Arts in June and found my photo school home. I flourished and gleaned all I could absorb about the art and business in almost all major photo industries from architectural photography, wedding, portrait, product and speed lights to at least 3 different in-depth classes in Photoshop…and more. At the end of the program an exhibit is held at the Photographic Resource Center (PRC) in Boston for the best work from all the photographic programs and schools in the area. One of my images was chosen as one of 3 other BUCDIA students to represent them at the exhibit. I graduated with a Certificate of Professional Photography in 2010.
I continued shooting portraits until we closed our gallery in October 2010. I found mobile photography during that time and slowly started to hone that craft. After purchasing my first iPhone I became more serious in using it as another tool of expression, and participated in a mobile photography exhibit at Stonecrop Gallery in Maine in June of 2012. All of my iPhone prints sold in that exhibit, which continues to motivate me to use my phone as a serious tool of expression to this day.
