Lauren

It feels right to start with this one, as it was one of the first pregnancy photoshoots I did after deciding that this was the path I wanted to take. I had been taking portraits, mainly of women and had become completely obsessed with my mum's old 35mm analogue camera. Close friends of mine were falling pregnant and I naturally started taking their photograph for them, to be able to capture that truly magical moment in time. It's such a shift for the body and soul. Capturing it felt completely necessary for me. Taking those first photo’s of my pregnant friends felt very different for me than my usual portraits. There was something so familiar, so safe and extremely exciting.

When I turned up at Lauren’s place, she was immediately so warm and inviting, it was almost like we had met before. She had a plate of croissants waiting for me and made me the most delicious coffee. She lived high up with a view of London, showing bits of buildings I had never even seen before. Her place was new yet homely. I set up my cameras and we scouted her place to see which locations would work well for our shoot. She was so beautiful, a model herself which made my job extremely easy! I couldn’t have asked for a better shoot. Everything was smooth and Lauren was so comfortable in her beautiful changing body, I feel I was really able to capture that so well.

In one of the shots she was wearing this beautiful pendant, my eyes clocked it straight away. She told me it’s story and we exchanged some touching personal words and our own stories. That is my favourite part of doing this work. The unexpected connecting that happens. She told me tales of her fantastic Doula, a woman who would later on contact me through email, send me her book to read and I would discover it was the Doula for quite a few of my future clients. Oh life's rhymes and rhythms!

The photos I took of sweet Lauren that day are still some of my favourites. They remind me of her kindness and of my first pregnancy photography experiences. After our shoot we actually submitted the images to Mother Muse magazine - link for that piece is below, another wonderful experience.