Jennifer Horst is a legacy portrait photographer based in Chapel Hill, NC, serving women across the Research Triangle who are ready to document their story – not just the milestones, but everything in between.
So many of us think that our stories don’t have merit. That our stories don’t have worth.
I want to counter that.
I want you to think about those middle chapters. The messy middle, if you will. Because isn’t that the time where you make the decisions that turn you into the person that you eventually become?
It’s definitely true for me.
As I look back on the decisions I made in my teens and my 20s, 30s, and now in my 40s, they all add up to something else. Even if it’s not a huge milestone, they are important pieces of the story, and they deserve to be told because of the impact on the outcome.
All of the different chapters make up the story of who you are. And each chapter is worth documenting.
Think About Your Life
Seriously.
Think about your life.
Think about what decisions you made in college that seemed inconsequential at the time but had huge impacts down the line.
The people you met. The goals you made. The trips you went on. The classes you took. The college you chose.
All of those bits of information collectively tell the story of who you were at that point in time, and they contribute to the evolution of who you’re becoming.
Yes, we can celebrate the milestones. We can celebrate that huge job promotion. We can celebrate the five-year mark on your business.
And we should, right? We absolutely should.
But we also need to talk about the little things. The little pieces that add up to the big ones.
You Are Worthy of Sharing
So many of us really do think that we’re just not worthy of sharing. And we are.
We all have information that somebody else can use at some point along the way, and it’s important to share that.
You have knowledge because you’ve lived it.
You’ve earned that knowledge through your life experience. And it’s time to document it.
It’s time to tell your story in your words, so that when the opportunity comes, your story can be told truthfully from your point of view. From your truth. Not from what somebody else understands your truth to be.
Think about it: there’s so much third-party storytelling happening all the time.
Think of documentaries about individuals who have passed. Think of eulogies at funerals. Think of the stories people tell of us at graduations and weddings.
And while they may be true, they’re not the whole truth from your perspective. And that distinction matters.
It’s really important that the people we want in our lives (our loved ones, our immediate family, our close friends, our community) have access to the records we actually create.
Not someone else’s version of our story.
What This Looks Like in the Studio
When you’re in the studio with me, sitting at the posing table – when I’m asking you questions, asking you to create faces, asking you to tell me about your expressions, your feelings, your experiences – this is what I’m actually looking for.
Because documenting yourself in portraiture, in your own words, is so important.
And I can honestly tell you, it’s such a thrill when you get to see that in print. When you get to really bask in the feeling of remembering what it was like to create that imagery, what it was like to share your story.
I love seeing my images in print.
And I love seeing my clients light up when they see theirs, especially when they’re printed.
Because the imagery really does bring back the impact that we have on ourselves when we take the time to appreciate who we are.
Who we are as individuals.
As moms, as wives, as friends. All of those different titles we give ourselves throughout our lives.
It’s so important to be able to give perspective to what that means for you at that point, and what it means for you right now.
Let’s Have That Conversation
If this resonated with you, I invite you to book your Curiosity Call below.
Let’s have a conversation about what this could look like for you. What aspect of your life do you want to celebrate? Not just the milestones, but also everything in between.
Because the messy middle deserves to be remembered too.