2022–another whirlwind year, packed with life and work and healing and travel and rest and sadness and grief and joy. And pups and food that was so good it made me cry and iced coffee and thrift trips and cleaning and organizing and making my body stronger and lighting many candles and listening to a lot of music and podcasts and time spent in front of a computer or behind a camera. And time spent by myself and with close friends and loved ones and new pals. I don’t think I’d have it any other way.

I traveled to California, Washington, North Carolina (a new state for me, which I didn’t realize until I was there!), and Ohio for work and got to go to Austin, Chicago, and Denver for some play. In 2023, my business and I will head out internationally again, and I’m excited for some more stamps in my passport. 

I am entering 2023 feeling so grateful for the things that have been shed and gained in 2022. More boundaries, more rest, more joy, and a whole lot of love was found. A desire to continue growing into my artistry and deconstructing what a photo even is, or even should be began happening (again). I made things outside of photos (paintings, poems, collages, etc) for really the first time in a long while, and will no doubt continue the creation process whenever I get the chance. I continued in the realm of “art shouldn’t have rules” in both the things I was making for myself/loved ones and the things I was making for the clients and couples who hired me. 2022 saw a HUGE uptick in experimental/nostalgic/film and/or vintage-inspired wedding photography, and it has really been a joy to get to play with these trends. I usually try to stay true to myself and usually don’t pay much mind to current trends in the photography world, but I hope this is one that sticks around. It’s been legitimately so fun to say “screw it” to all the technical rules I learned as a young photographer and to embrace motion blur and grain and weird light and double exposures and freelensing and “weird” crops and dragged flash, etc. In some ways it makes my job feel even more artistic and allows for a freedom of experimentation and play that…I think I had been searching for for a long time. My work is heavily journalistic, and so taking time to intentionally create frames that felt more like different types of art outside of photography really filled my soul. Let it continue.

I stayed pretty quiet on social media this year–beyond the headaches and internal battles it triggers in me, there’s a deep desire within me to keep my head down and keep creating while keeping it hidden away so that it can remain “mine.” I’m still getting over the fear of being copied or emulated or just the fear of failure or judgement, perhaps. I haven’t shared much of my work or art this past year because of those fears. These fears are something I’m working on dealing with, because beyond the deep desire to keep my art “mine,” there is a deeper desire to share it with the world. A double-edged sword that I’ve been dueling with for the better part of my life as an artist. 

Aside from this liminal space I am currently in–floating between having an abundance of sharing to do and wanting nearly zero interaction with the internet–my life feels the best it has…maybe ever. I feel fulfilled most days, grateful I get to be here, living this particular life. I fell more in love with being alive. I fell more in love with the world around me. And I am entering 2023 with hope and excitement for what lies ahead for me.

But this blog post is about my favorite photos that I took in 2022–some from every session, elopement, and wedding, with not much rhyme or reason on how they were chosen outside of “I like this.” It’s not really about me. I’ll write a memoir or something to keep y’all posted on my personal life if you want.
Here are my favorites, in no particular order. (Click on images to view larger.) 

Thanks for being here. I love you.