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katiusca
\kah-tyous-ka\
noun:
derivative of Katherine, meaning pure.
I am an artist. I denied it for a long time. I let myself be misguided by societal pressures to take up a traditional career. I didn’t learn to accept myself and my talents until I was able to reflect on my life during a period of what Brene Brown calls “unraveling,” or heartfelt challenges. Accepting my self, my passion for photography and art, I was able to reaffirm the beauty of my life, marriage and growing family.
During the unraveling, I realized I had neglected my creativity and art. I had always made art, from drawing, crocheting, to taking pictures and scrap booking. In college, however, I didn’t pursue art, instead I followed a liberal arts agenda. While I should have gone to art school, I did pursue my passion for empowering women and graduated college with a minor in Women’s Studies and started the beginning of my journey to understand myself, femininity and my heart.
While college was amazing, graduating from college found me pregnant and in need of providing for an unborn child. I took employment as a paralegal to pursue the part-time work I did in college; voicing other’s stories. I joined many women’s organizations and became a leader to help women voice their concerns, affirm their femininity and inner beauty.
From work to law school in the evenings, I worked to provide for my daughter and myself while strategically telling other’s stories in a compelling and honest fashion. Looking back, I realized that while I had become a voice for others, I suppressed my own voice. After 10 years of practicing as a story teller for others, I was ready to tell my own story.
It was from this position, as a story teller, that I began to fashion my own HerStory; to rewrite my story, to learn to live life with self acceptance, love, and to really embrace my femininity, creativity and desire to produce art that made others feel empowered, safe and warm.
I then began taking images to capture my art. I soon, however, realized that the real art was in photographing the people who loved creative work. Embracing my art and creativity meant realizing that images of families, couples and children were the art I needed to feed my soul. Yet, it wasn’t until I began photographing women and helping them see their own beauty that I knew my true calling as a photographer.
I became a photographer to capture the delicate simplicity of life, femininity and complexities of being a woman. As a photographer, I draw inspiration from a woman’s minimalist delights and luxurious joys. I crave to capture women’s souls and essence through evocative poses, breath taking smiles or sultry eyes. Even more important, is my desire to use photographic images to help voice every woman’s story, HerStory; a story that is full of triumph, self-love, care and acceptance. Instead of a story teller, I have become a Story Catcher. I am the place where women can let loose, shine and have their stories unfold in front of the camera.
As a woman, you and I are worthy, we are glamorous and deserving of love; self love. Self love is empowering and can be captured and memorialized forever through photography because it is through the lens where I want you to be and SEE yourself as you are. I want it so much that when you look back on your images ten, twenty, thirty years from now you think, “I couldn’t have summed it up any better.”
Raw, honest. Sincere. Your life is far too unique to settle for just any picture. You deserve to convey the essence of what it truly means to be YOU. To live YOUR unique life is pretty special isn’t it? Now you know why I love taking photos…. Let’s meet…