Miriam

Have you ever had an ache, an inner longing that just wouldn’t go away? Deep within me, I’ve always had the need to create.

Music was my first outlet. My mother took me to piano lessons, as she had with my older siblings, and I struggled with commanding my childish fingers to do as they were told. But one day, a corner was turned and I began to feel  the music. My mother saw my rising interest and bought season tickets to a local fine arts series of concerts, and took me to the Shakespeare Festival. I never told her (because I didn’t fully know it myself) but I didn’t want to just sit and watch—I wanted to do it! I wanted to act, I wanted to sing, I wanted to dance. As I grew, I became frustrated that my hands and my voice couldn’t reproduce the art that was inside of me. I became an elementary music teacher—it was a practical choice.

As a child, photography was also a part of my life, but not something I took seriously. My father was an avid amateur photographer and one of our bathrooms doubled as a dark room. We washed prints in the laundry sink. For my 12th birthday, he bought me my first “medium format” camera, a Yashica twin lens reflex that used 120 film. I learned to develop BW film and make prints.

Later, I met and married the love of my life, Neil. He was working toward becoming a high school English teacher,  but with access to cameras and a dark room, a new passion was born. Two years later, teaching was set aside and our studio was born. Through Neil’s encouragement, I picked up a camera once again and discovered that this was the outlet for my inner longing.

Why I am here. . .

The view through my lens is my window to the world, the print on the wall is my notebook and each person that comes before my camera allows me to take a small peak at the miracle of life that God has given us.

I hope that some of what I leave behind causes people to notice, to feel more deeply what they already know to be true—and to feel more of whoever they are.

Accolades
Master of Photography degree from Professional Photographers of America
Fellow of Photography from Professional Photographers of Oregon
4 time winner of the Fuji Masterpiece award
2 time Oregon Portrait Photographer of the Year
3 times in Professional Photographers of America’s National Loan Collection
Speaker, judge and consultant to professional photographers
Member of National Association of Photoshop Professionals