The phrase “women empowerment photography” gets used a lot. On websites, in Instagram captions, in marketing materials for everything from fitness studios to insurance companies. It’s been stretched pretty thin.

So I want to be specific about what I mean when I use it — because the specificity matters, and it’s the reason women keep finding their way to my studio in Chicago specifically to do this work.

What it is not

It’s not posing a woman in a way that looks powerful and calling it empowering. It’s not flattering lighting and good retouching. It’s not a script — “now look fierce, now look soft, now look like you own the room.” Those things might produce a nice photograph. They don’t produce what I’m describing.

What it actually is

It’s what happens when a woman is in an environment where nobody needs anything from her. Where the only agenda is hers. Where she’s not being photographed for a company, a family album, a dating profile, or anyone’s idea of what she should look like. Where someone is genuinely paying attention — not to her performance, but to her.

That environment is rare. Most women don’t experience it often. When they do, something interesting happens in front of a camera: they stop managing how they’re perceived and start simply being. And being, it turns out, photographs extraordinarily well.

Who books these sessions in Chicago

Honestly, all kinds of women. A lawyer who wanted something that was entirely hers after years of performing in every other context. A nurse who had been taking care of everyone else for so long she couldn’t remember the last time she’d been the one receiving attention. A woman in her 50s who’d gone through a divorce and wanted images that showed who she was becoming, not who she’d been. A 28-year-old who just wanted to feel herself and had no deeper reason than that — which is also completely enough.

They come from different neighborhoods, different backgrounds, different relationships to their bodies and their stories. What they share is that they wanted something honest.

What sessions look like here

I offer several formats — boudoir portraits, lifestyle sessions, fashion-forward editorial work, maternity photography, and more open-ended “express yourself” sessions for women who have a specific vision they want to explore. The through-line is always the same: you’re in charge of what this is for, and I’m in charge of making it look the way it should.

Every session starts with a real consultation. Not a form — a conversation. I want to know what you’re hoping to feel when you see your images. That question matters more than almost anything else we could discuss.

If you’ve been on the fence

I know this kind of photography can feel like a big step. It’s intimate, it’s personal, and you’re trusting someone with something vulnerable. I take that seriously. If it helps to just ask a few questions before committing to anything, that’s exactly what the contact page is for. And if you’re ready, here’s how to reserve your session.