This post might border a little more on the personal side but I feel it is essential to know how much I valued Fabian and Mina and the time I spent with them during their photo session. When Mina (who is a talented photographer herself!) had emailed me wanting to book a session for her and her husband I was experiencing a season in my life which I had never experienced or encountered before and consequently, I had a lot of misgivings about finalizing a session for them. Life after loss affects every aspect of your life and I had just begun to discover that when a little more than a year ago my twin sons passed away. Loss shattered my world and shredded away any meaning that it could have for a long stretch of time. It was hard to see the purpose, the beauty, the promise of anything in life when so much was taken away from me. Since the boys passed away, I noticed my levels of creativity (if I can claim to possess any) were nonexistent. I couldn't pick up my camera, nor did I want to. It seemed so very purposeless to attempt to try and even more so when the world was absent of color. I could only see things in sadness and in the darkening light of things I had lost. To attempt to see it otherwise or even pretend otherwise would have taken a superhuman strength that I did not possess. But life doesn’t stop even when you feel it has. And Mina and Fabian were one of the first clients to reach out to me and want to book with me shortly after all that had happened.
The days are getting longer and it’s beginning to warm up here in Vienna, but I’m reminiscing back on one of my favourite winter family sessions. Kate reached out to me shortly after she and her husband Greg, and two boys, Conor and Ryan, and their super cute Papillon, Scout, moved to Vienna. She confessed it had been a few years since they had family photos taken and she wanted some new ones now that they’ve settled into Vienna.
Joshua and Réka reached out to me while they were planning a very simple and quiet morning wedding ceremony at one of Vienna's Standesamt (aka courthouses). They wanted to capture a few pictures of themselves before they went to the Standesamt and had their civil ceremony. I was more than happy to oblige, of course. (I love courthouse portrait sessions!) Joshua met Réka while on tour in Europe and ever since then it was love at first sight for the both of them. It was also clear from the start that they both had met their match. Joshua has a cheeky personality and Réka is impeccably calm and sweet. Both her sweetness and his spice are perfectly balanced out in their relationship.
I first stumbled across Sonal’s work on Instagram. If there has ever been anyone’s work I want to materialize into a real life place so I can step into it and exist, it’s Sonal’s paintings. She is a modern day Claude Monet of sorts. Her work is dreamy, colorful, and floral. I could swear that you can smell the perfume of her flowers in her art.
When Ben was heading into work one day he looked up and saw “the most beautiful woman” across the way in the same u-bahn he was riding in. He saw her get off the same stop and head into the same place he worked at and after that, he made it his mission to get introduced to this woman. After many attempts he was able to work his way into her good graces and woo her into dating him. A few years later and they were wed in an intimate and simple ceremony in Vienna.
