BWW Blog: Amy Parrish of Atelier Photography

Ohio is beginning to thaw and spring peepers have emerged from the damp. These are signs of business beginning to pick up again for Atelier, a portrait photography company my husband and I run from our rural farmhouse in Granville, Ohio. We'll gradually become busier and busier as the temperature rises, dedicating most of our time towards this creative outlet. But, to be perfectly honest, it's the lean months of winter that I often enjoy most.

It used to be that I would sit around, likely buried beneath blankets and in front of the tv, letting a silly thing like weather take control over my own creativity. I would yearn for the springtime, thinking that when a paying client walked through the door, I'd finally have the chance to pick up my camera again. How many years were wasted that way!

Now, while I still look forward to a change in seasons, I'm thankful for the barren of winter. I get a few months to slow down my pace at work and take a step back to evaluate both my life and my personal artwork.

This year I really wanted to focus on collaborations and making a difference in the world. I worked with friend and photographer, Michelle Black, to offer a more artful alternative to boudoir photography through an event we named A Renewal of Elegance. The main premise was to celebrate inner beauty and document the essence of of a woman, without focusing our images on physical attributes that boudoir photography is so often boiled down to. It was important to us that women we worked with recognized and valued their own allure as being something quite separate from sex appeal.

Later in the month, I traveled with another friend and photographer, Brooke Shaden, to Kolkata, India where she led a Blossomy workshop for human trafficking survivors with Kolkata Sanved. In the same trip, Alexandra Copley and I teamed up to bring a workshop to the children of New Light, a drop-in center located in one of the red light districts of Kolkata.

Now that I'm back, I've spent the month of March collecting hundreds of shoes for a national shoe drive organized by Dando Amor, a group founded by two photographers who I've mentored with in the past at a series of educational conferences known as After Dark. They'll be bringing many of these shoes to an orphanage they've been working closely with in Ecuador while the excess donations will be packaged into crates and shipped to areas in need around the globe.

Add in a group reading of Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way at my home each Saturday, scheduling personal project photo shoots when I've got the gift of extra time, as well as preparing pieces for two separate exhibitions of my work, and I would say that my slow season truly has not been slow at all. I'm feeling more driven than ever to continue this flow.

What are some projects (personal or artistic) that you can fit into this week?

LINKS:

ATELIER: www.atelierofgranville.com
Michelle Black: www.light-traces.com
BROOKE SHADEN: www.brookeshaden.com
BLOSSOMY: www.blossomy.org
KOLKATA SANVED: www.kolkatasanved.org
ALEXANDRA COPLEY: www.alexandracopley.com
NEW LIGHT: www.newlightindia.org
DANDO AMORE: www.dandoamor.org
AFTER DARK: www.afterdarkedu.com
THE ARTISTS WAY: www.juliacameronlive.com

One of the young women costumed for a self-portrait project led by photographer Brooke Shaden.

An image to be displayed in an upcoming show that features travel images from the Indian Coffeehouse in Kolkata, India.

An image from a series of serendipitous work photographed on the coast of Maine last spring. This series entitled "Leap of Faith" has been printed and framed for an upcoming display.

A display hanging in the offices of Kolkata Sanved; an organization healing human trafficking survivors through dance and movement therapy.

Children in a workshop at the New Light center created solar prints using found objects such as trash, paper and leaves.

An example of a fine art portrait session. Available for private commissions through www.amyparrish.com.

One of the high school seniors photographed in our portrait business, Atelier. Hundreds, if not thousands of shoes piling up to go towards the Dando Amor National Shoe Drive.

Part of a personal project: I've created images for a self-published book that touches on various aspects of femininity.

An image created for A Renewal of Elegance. The allure of one's essence can be even more attractive than sex appeal alone.