My goal with my themed shoots is to connect with viewers and have the images impact them in some way. Whether they relate to the story, or they are inspired to create, I always hope to create an impression that has a ripple effect.

My journey as a photographer actually didn’t start with people! It started with nature. As a follower of Aristotle's philosophy, I believe that nature tells stories if you listen. So, I started listening and capturing landscape and nature macro photography. I would add poetry to the images, personifying them to the viewer. I eventually self-published several nature-photo-poetry books and moved onto humans.

I have a twin sister and we have always loved the odd, bizarre and weird. Together, we love to recreate old-school-style horror. Vintage horror interests me the most because they didn’t seem like they were ‘trying’ to scare. They just did. They were just innately creepy and mesmerizing just by donning primitive masks and normal clothes. Nothing is more neck-tingling terrifying than strangers in homemade paper mâché masks captured in daguerreotype images enveloped by craquelure. It’s a nightmare waiting for your eyes to close.

My favorite part of the creative process is usually styling. I have a few designers I've developed a relationship with and can easily put together rough drafts of costumes I have envisioned for a theme and they bring them to life. While they are sending me sketches and sneak peeks, I am usually creating props with my sister and husband. It all flows well over the course of a few months, sometimes longer.

I feel like as horror has progressed, we have lost the intrinsic traits of realistic terror. To me, a regular stranger donning a vintage mask and standing in a cornfield without saying a word is much more terrifying than a slasher with a trite story. Pair that with the mystery of the vintage horror pics—we feel a little safer looking at them because that was in the past, right? But imagine yourself in that scene with that demented clown wearing a deformed mask, tilting his head as if to say, “Come and play….” Now, put that same image in color and in a modern setting and it just doesn't hit the same, to me anyway.

Long ago, I researched why we find clowns scary. The answer is interesting--most clowns either wear masks or makeup to fix their facial expressions. Masks in general are said to terrify people because they cover facial expressions, so we cannot predict or understand the intent behind the person wearing them. Makeup is the same. Maniacal smiles with sad eyes are incongruent and confusing. We cannot relate or translate. We don’t know if the smiling clown mask covers a face twisted in anger pregnant with premeditation. We don’t know if they are harmless or harmful. It's like going up the basement stairs when the lights are off. We run…because we don’t know what is beneath the dark.  I played on this fear in this vintage clown shoot---I used playful poses and odd tilts of heads or placement of hands to further the confusion. What do they want from you? Guess you’ll have to find out!

What makes me passionate about photography is telling stories. I have always loved reading stories and getting lost in thought and imagination. Through photography, I pass that magic onto others. I really love hearing how people interpret my images, and how they impact and inspire them. Creating a story through photography is cathartic and rewarding. Each set starts with a thought, that thought turns into a text to myself to add to an ever-growing list of ideas. Then I bring it to life through tons of planning, prop creation, shopping, styling, setting the perfect scene, getting the perfect actors and executing the final story. Every single time I edit the final set of images, I giggle like a child when they look exactly how I first imagined. It’s an art, it’s a job, it’s a story and it's so fulfilling.