I was an art major studying graphic design and photography. I had a creative background. The emotive sentiment. I was made to do this...
But here's what I want you to know.
In 2008 my entire perspective shifted and changed when my sister was killed in a car accident. She was only 28. I seriously realized the brevity of life is a real thing and that life is too short not to chase your dreams. So on May 10, 2010, I quit my Marketing job and went full time into photography. The monarch butterfly in my logo is for my sister. You can read about her and why I use the monarch butterfly in my branding on the TRIBUTE page of my website.
In 2012 a photographer friend asked me to model for her in an old boarding house. The experience was incredible. And I walked away from that old, forgotten space that needed someone to just come in and show it love feeling a immense life-change. I could relate to that building, to its forlorn empty parts and dark corridors. I too needed restoration and love at that time in my life. I felt connected to that dilapidated building and I went back to it a few weeks later and photographed my best friend. I even joked about her using a tiny "changing room" made just for her as she changed her clothes. Ironically, the town of Goshen came in and rehabbed that entire building and that little tiny room? It's now my literal changing room. Life has a serendipitous way of being comical sometimes. I believe that building and I found each other and that I was meant to work there - mostly that I was meant to empower women there. I have been able over the years to photograph many genres, but photographing women is my heart and my most favorite line of work. It is special to me because of my own personal transformations and metamorphosis. I want to have women find their beauty and confidence through me, to know that their worth comes from their soul and journey, not the body. I want to be the gold that fills the cracks of their vessel. To remind them that they aren't broken, they are beautiful.
Life is a gift.
Photo by Paulo Juarez Portrait & Fine Art Photography 2021