09/02/2026
One of my favorite moments in a portrait session happens at the very end, when we sit down together and look through the photographs.
Recently, I asked one of my clients, “Do you feel like you see yourself in these?”
“Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.”
As we kept looking, she laughed, got emotional, and stopped on different portraits:
“Yes, queen.”
“That brings emotions to me.”
“Oh, that’s like I’m talking to her.”
And looking at one image that seemed to hold part of her journey, she said, “I wouldn’t be where I am today, or who I am today.”
That’s what I want.
Not a photograph where you’re busy checking your chin, your stomach, your arms, or all the things you’ve learned to pick apart.
A portrait where, for a moment, you see the whole woman.
The personality. The strength. The history. The joy. The woman you’ve spent all these years becoming.
Sometimes my job isn’t to transform a woman for a photograph.
It’s simply to help her recognize what was already there.
Portrait of the amazing Eva Maria Rodriguez Alicea
