35 Years

portrait photographer mary grace long seattle

 

Solely for Soul

 

This is why I photograph.
No matter for whom or for what.

 

Not for branding. Nor lifestyle.
These are secondary, though can well apply if we glean the foremost.

 

Thirty five years back, lost but driven, I bowed out of Boston’s financial district. Post graduation I landed a proper blue suit job with a small investment firm. Proficient in math and steeped in a social justice home, I intuitively paired the two, choosing Economics. I studied how our manmade systems funnel money for the many or the few. But there I was in Wall Street, at 22. It didn’t fit. I quit.
(nothing against Wall Street; it wasn’t my path)

 

And followed the expression of the human spirit, my own and those I photographed.

 

Culture is a fickle mirror. I struggled there. But to look through it. The camera gave voice to a deeper knowing in me. A truer vantage from which to see.

 

These decades out, I’m still taking note – reflecting true beauty. I was raised to see it. And I do. In you.

 

Portrait Photography | Seattle | Studio and Location