In 2008 I was approached by one of my brides – she asked me if I would be comfortable doing a boudoir shoot for her. April had already done some boudoir shoots at the time so I was familiar with the concept, I just had not thought much about doing a boudoir shoot myself. This particular bride was amazing at showing me how much she believed in me and trusted me, so I said why not! Let’s do this! I couldn’t help myself after that – I fell in love with boudoir shoots. From there I was telling everyone about them, how empowering they were, how fun they were to allow women to dress up and feel confident and sexy in their own skin. After that I did several boudoir shoots every year, I just never had permission to share them except for a few here and there. (From this post back are the few shoots I have been allowed to share in the past since beginning to shoot boudoir)
Fast forward to last year. I had been shooting boudoir for awhile and felt like I needed new tools, a fresh perspective. I needed to hear how other people approached boudoir. So I took a chance and flew to Canada to be a part of an amazing boudoir workshop. I came home newly inspired to shoot boudoir and knew that it needed it’s own space. At the same time I was soul searching, including some inspiration from Lara Casey, to figure out what really fired me up. Why is it that I do what I do. What, at my core, makes me feel most fulfilled. The answer? Serving women. It has always been that for me. Knowing what women go through in this world, knowing that the vast majority of women describe their bodies as “disgusting” and “gross”. Knowing that I too have battled and still do battle that voice in my head. In the words of Eve Ensler, knowing that we go through this life acting like our heads are detached from our bodies like balloons because we just want to ignore what is on the other side of our necks. And while boudoir shoots have the reputation of just being a gift for your partner, I watched as they were ALWAYS a gift to the woman doing the shoot. To hear women talk about how they have never seen themselves that way, that they felt so good about themselves and actually enjoyed being in front of the camera for once.
Boudoir can be so powerful for women, and in turn for their partners. I’ve seen it breathe life into marriages. Maybe that power scared me a little bit at first. Maybe that’s why I hesitated before putting this new space out into the world. It is my heart and not everyone understands it, especially in the south. But I just felt like it was time. So here it is, a piece of my heart out into the world.
(That is me, Ashley, pictured above, as photographed by my husband David)
