Jamie

Jamie

A mother of four, two of them twins.

A fierce woman pursuing a career that courageously helps women.

A woman so open, so honest, she carries self assuredness with her as she enters the room.

A woman not without insecurities, but a woman that has learned how to challenge the nasty voice in her head and take control.

A woman that still needed to be reminded that she is powerful beyond measure, despite the roadblocks life has thrown at her.

A woman that needed to be reminded that she is a force to be reckoned with, capable of overcoming the most challenging moments in her life.

A woman that needed to know there was still a spark inside her. A spark that never left, she just couldn’t see it.

THIS woman. Beautiful. Impactful. Powerful. Brilliant.

“The twins took a lot out of me. I haven’t felt like myself in a long time. Not even the outside version of myself. I’ve accepted the changes their pregnancy made to me and have embraced, but I’ve been missing that spark. I saw it today, it’s still there. I just had to find it.”

— Jamie

Photo by Christie Caiola

Welcome To My World....

Hello, hello. I’m Christie, the hand behind the trigger and the voice behind the brand.

Welcome to my world and ultimately the entire contents of my brain. What I share here is authentically me, I don’t have much of a choice to be honest, I only have one speed.

I am an artist, but that’s only part of it. I’m obsessed with the depths of the human experience– the journey a person goes on in their lifetime, partly a physical journey and partly a journey of the mind. Unraveling insecurities, concepts of the world around them, perceptions of experiences and the process within.

This art, photography, is the vessel. It’s the way I am able to open my mind and reveal what’s inside. It’s a gift I never take for granted. This gift, the ability to literally show you what I see, is something I believe only a photographer has. Perhaps a skilled artist can as well, but when I pick up that camera I am literally and physically able to capture what my mind sees when I see you. I use lighting to capture an emotion that isn’t a tangible element. Every single detail is for that purpose, to use the tangible to capture the intangible.

There’s so much more to you than your insecurities. There’s so much more to you than the things that have bogged you down, suffocating you and lying to you. The darkness of our minds knows no bounds, it will fester and take hold until you feel like you have lost control. If this gift can have even a fraction of an impact on such things, I will continue until I can no longer hold my camera.

I hope you are relentless in your pursuit of healing. Whatever you are healing from; trauma, self doubt, insecurities, anxiety, depression… I hope you seek victory. I hope I get to meet you on that journey and share in your stories along the way.

And.

I hope I get to capture such a bold and courageous woman.

My return to society post covid! + A little intro for the new comers

I’M BACKKKKKK!!!!

Woof, guys. It has been a bit. I took a little camping vacation with my family and it truly was amazing. It was such an incredible opportunity to disconnect and refresh, I came home SO excited to get back to work.

BUT THEN… exactly ONE DAY after we got back home, I came down with Covid, that son of a bitch.

Queue up throwing me off entirely (on top of a few very miserable days in bed), my whole family testing positive (both symptomatic and asymptomatic) and ruining some really great plans we had. Needless to say it has been a rough week + both physically and mentally.

If you know me (and if you don’t, I’m about to do a little intro) you know that I am in a constant state of self awareness. I am challenging my thoughts, I want to be the best version of myself that I can be and playing victim and making excuses for myself just isn’t the way.

So I’m back, grateful for time with family even the time we spent sick and quarantined. We played board games and had epic movie nights together and worked extremely hard to find some light in an otherwise dark time.

As for me, I have noticed an influx of new followers around here and I’m so grateful you’ve decided to come on this journey with me and all the women I work with and empower.

I was an agency represented makeup artist in NYC, working with brands, magazines and celebrities that I merely dreamed of when I first stepped foot into that world. But then something happened, I absorbed all of this knowledge, the lighting, the posing, the retouching… I knew I could play a bigger role. And to be honest, I knew it wasn’t in that industry.

I wanted to bring that editorial atmosphere to everyday women, the ones that admire the models and celebrities in magazines that seem so far out of reach. Only it’s really not that far out of reach afterall. With beautiful hair and makeup, great lighting and high quality editing, you can get that experience for yourself. 

Apart from the technicalities, the experience isn’t only (or even mostly) about the superficial. What I do is really special (if I do say so myself). There’s no other job in the world that allows a person to take EXACTLY what they see before them and physically SHOW it to another person. From my eyes to yours, I want to show you what I see in you. Spoiler alert, it’s very different from the harsh eyes you are looking at yourself with. 

Please, give me an opportunity to show you how special, radiant and beautiful you are. 

I see you, because I am you...

I’ve pinched and pulled all the parts of me

Frowned at the mirror

Hid under clothing

Made impossible promises to myself that I would achieve a version of my body that I deemed perfect

Longed for moments of worthiness

Acceptance

Wondered what it felt like to look in the mirror with approval

I’ve sat jealous of women around me

Wondering if they felt the same about themselves too

I am my clients. 

I am you.

I am her.

I am all the women that are sick of being told who they are, who they should be, and what box they belong in.

I am on a never ending journey to accept myself for all that I am. The good, the bad, the ugly, the brilliant and the beautiful. 

I am your ambassador. I am there to represent your deepest insecurities and your greatest fears. I stand on your behalf as someone that has felt the depth of the insecurities that rule us. I hold your hand as we cross bridges we’ve never crossed before. Overcoming fears and insecurities to place yourself in front of a camera. I am alongside you as the emotions of an experience so huge come crashing down around you. The excitement, the nerves, the fears. 

And it is my greatest joy to be your partner in such an important journey.

Celebrating the big session giveaway winner!

My beautiful giveaway winner came in yesterday and WOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOWOW. @sam_amerman absolutely crushed it, did she not??!

The whole session we focused on embracing the soft with the bold as we always do but it was really at the forefront of our minds.

Sometimes the wardrobe is just as important as everything else. This pink sweater felt so soft and delicate yet her tattoos and confidence add to the dimension and depth that is femininity in itself.

We are complex, we are bold and we are soft, we are strong, we are emotional, we are loving, we set boundaries. These things can all exist at once and all I ever want to do is capture all the complexities that live inside you.

When you book a boudoir session, take all of these things into account when shopping for your wardrobe. What pieces bring out the different parts of you? The texture of a sweater against the smoothness of your skin, the pale pink color subtly living in cohesion with your skin’s undertones and yet in contrast with your long, dark hair. Each outfit helps us tell the story of who you are.

Each woman enters my studio at a different place in her self love journey. Some are at the beginning, stumbling on baby deer legs into a future where they can finally embrace who they are. Some come to me towards the end, celebrating the laborious journey of learning to love themselves and actually sitting in the truth that they are worthy. Wherever you’re at in your journey, that’s where I meet you. This session either sheds light on a piece of you that has been living in the dark for too long or it confirms that what you’ve been working towards all along is worth celebrating.

“Ahh I did it!”

“One of the best experiences of my whole life!” - Sam A.

Why do I love maternity sessions so much???

I’m sure you can tell by now that I have a special place in my heart for my maternity clients. I am genuinely obsessed with the entire experience, the journey you embark on whether it’s your first or third (or more). I know, I know, I’m not trying to glorify pregnancy as if it’s rainbows and butterflies. It’s hard, really hard. But nothing worth having comes easily, right?

I had my kids really young (since most people ask, I was 22 when I had my first kid). I wanted to be a young mom and of course there are pros and cons to having your kids early vs waiting. But this felt right for me.

That also meant that we were relatively broke. We were just coming off of living in Africa prior and during a part of my first pregnancy before moving back to New Jersey. We were still building our careers as most people are through their 20s while simultaneously juggling babies and young kids. I never got the opportunity to have a maternity photoshoot done for myself, and I think that’s one of my driving forces for capturing this moment for people. All I have are mirror selfies, lots and lots of mirror selfies. I’ll be honest, there’s a pretty distinct difference in quality and overall magnitude of the beauty of pregnancy.

Being a mother myself, it’s not just about the shape (although I am obsessed with it). It’s not just about the baby inside either, even though that is equally as important. For me it’s about the power of the woman in front of me. Her strength and her endurance. The ability to create a literal human being, sacrificing her body, her sleep, her comfort. I am obsessed with the journey and transformation that comes from becoming a mother and that’s how I like to capture it. The woman as a whole, not just reducing her to her baby alone. 

For a lot of women, becoming a mother feels a little like a loss of self. In front of my camera, you’re whole. You’re you, you’re a mother, you’re a woman, you’re powerful, you’re creative, you’re bold, you’re even still sexy. You haven’t lost any of who you are, you’re only adding to it and becoming a more dynamic woman. 

I’m grateful beyond words to be a part of that journey with my clients. To be chosen to document such an incredible time in your life. As much as it feels like an eternity while you’re pregnant, that time comes and goes so fast. If you’re currently pregnant and considering a shoot, please do it. Capture that moment, it will be gone before you know it. Even if you’re feeling some kind of negative feelings about yourself during that challenging (and hormonally charged) time, I promise you won’t regret it. As Moira Rose says, “One day you will look at those photos with much kinder eyes and say, "Dear God, I was a beautiful thing!"