A FEW THINGS
— some fun facts
I did not really pick up
a camera until i was well
into my 20's.
Before I ever picked up a camera, I was a dancer. Almost twenty years, three companies in Philadelphia, and two seasons at Jacob's Pillow in 1986 and 1987. Not on a pole. Those years in my body taught me everything I know about light, composition, and movement long before I ever looked through a viewfinder. It's why photographing people on a dance floor is my absolute favorite thing I do. I get in there with my clients. I'm dancing. I'm sweating. By the end of the night, I've earned it just as much as they have.
I didn't pick up a camera until I was well into my 20s, but when I did, everything I'd learned as a dancer was already in there waiting.
“II took what you might call a gap decade. Instead of going straight to college,
I spent three years traveling solo through Europe, which is how I ended up deep in the music scene, MCing raves and performing for crowds I still can’t believe were real.
I once performed for over 25,000 people in Germany. I opened for Moby.
I didn’t make it back to school until I was 26, when I enrolled at Emerson College and finally got the education I was actually ready for. Nothing about the path was conventional, and I wouldn’t change a single thing about it.”
I went to school with The Roots and Boyz II Men.
I was once a rapper.
My name was MC Sweet'n Lo.
“I graduated from Emerson College with a degree in film and media studies, sold everything I owned, and moved to LA, where I produced reality TV for nine years. Nothing about reality TV is real. Trust me on that one.
I was a winner in the Gordon Parks National Photo Competition in 1999 with one of the first photographs I ever took with a 35mm camera. I entered on a dare.
I love all kinds of hip-hop and old soul music.
My first concert was Bette Midler when I was 5 years old. Old. My 2nd concert was Barry Manilow a year later. But my first real concert was Journey’s Escape tour when I was in 7th grade. I also saw Prince’s Purple Rain tour when I was in 9th grade.”
“While we are on the subject of music, I also attended Live Aid! Believe it or not, I still have my ticket stub.
I have cried at almost every wedding I’ve shot.
I have two neurodivergent sons, and working with people who are neurodivergent is my specialty, because I’m neurodivergent too. I like to call it Neurospicy, actually. No personality is too difficult for me, full stop.
I was the cover girl for High Times magazine in May of 1993. Google it”
My husband and I have three rules in our marriage, and they work. Get a pen. Write these down.
No screaming when we fight.
No arguing about money.
No TV in the bedroom.
Married 26 years. Together for 30. And yeah, we still like each other.
I love my couples so much that I wrote a whole blog post about what I've learned watching them. It's called "Marital Bliss: The Secret to a Successful Marriage Through a Wedding Photographer's Eyes." I send it to every couple about two days after I photograph their wedding.
You can read it here.
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