a queer photog / holly stevens

Hello all, happy Thursday! It is late July and I am in the height of my busy season for photography—although “busy” is relative, of course. I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about what business success means to me. It is something close to: working with exactly the folks I want to be working with, in a context that feels meaningful to everyone involved. That definition is not totally complete, but it is two-thirds of the way there. And from that yardstick, this has been an incredibly fruitful summer. I have made work that I am deeply proud of and that connected me with some amazing new folks. I still feel like my business has a lot of room to grow, but I seem to be on the right path.

One of the shoots I did in the recent weeks that filled my creative cup was photographing my friend Natalie Allgyer during her cross-country trip that amounted to almost 7,000 miles. Natalie and I grew up in the same town in the Florida panhandle without ever knowing each other, finally meeting years later through Instagram and becoming friends. We always photograph each other when we are together and this year I shot her in her vintage camper that was her home as she traversed all over the US. We made some amazing images that I am excited to share with you today.

It feels extra fitting that I got to photograph Natalie in her camper because my work has been becoming more and more focused on the themes of place, home, and connection to the land. I have become deeply interested in capturing peoples' relationship to their rootedness (or uprootedness). I am thinking more about the context of where I am photographing a subject—seeing the location as a living, breathing part of the photographic collaboration. It has really changed my work and made it feel much more potent to me.

Thank you for taking the time to check out these images and thoughts. I have one more thing for you! I am excited to announce that I have a brand new print shop on my website. This has been a while in the making, and I am so excited to have exclusive new work available as 5x7" or 8x10" prints. It makes me really happy to get physical copies of my photographs into your hands! Here's a little preview of what you'll see in my shop… click the image below or the link above to see more.

I hope you're all having a restful summer and that this newsletter leaves you feeling a little more inspired. xo, Holly