I love to celebrate that sacrifice through my photography. There is an exhausted — yet fulfilled — beauty to motherhood, and it deserves to be captured and memorialized.

My instructions for this photo session were quite simple: artsy, a bit sexy, with no greenery or trees, and I think the area we selected fit the bill with its historic buildings, ornate doors, and brick paths.

If you follow my work at all, you’ve seen that I’ve been slightly obsessed with tulle lately. So it shouldn’t surprise you that I outfitted Kynya in a tulle ASOS dress but brought yards of additional fabric so that we could play.

But it dawned on me yesterday that perhaps my use of heavy shadows and pockets of light comes from my love of the corner — of wanting to sink into my surroundings.

I have come to the conclusion that I am a photographer who likes to come home wet, or dirty, or drenched in sweat — or some heavenly combination of all three. It’s important to note, my clients usually leave the session the same way. But I’ve found that when hair styles come undone, whether it’s through rain, or wind, or tiny hands; and when dresses and shirts cling from water or sweat, something magical happens.