In college, you would have found me shelling out my last pocket change on fashion magazines. Ignoring the reading, I pored over the photographs, absorbing them. They were beautiful to me, magnetic. I couldn’t figure out why. (Maybe you’ve had that same experience when you first encountered what you love to do.)
When growing up, I labeled myself “not talented”. You see, many parents in the Soviet Union where I was born and raised made their kids go to a music school. My mom asked me if I wanted to learn to play a piano but because I was enrolled in a dance school I told her it would be impossible. I didn’t become a dancer either, but neither did I learn to play a musical instrument. Therefore, the self-imposed label “not talented” prohibited me from doing photography, because … how could I?
It wasn’t until April of 2013 when I quit drinking that I could no longer ignore the voice inside of me that urged me to try my hand at photography. I signed up for a digital photography class and introduction to Photoshop and bought my first digital camera. I always thought I would be photographing butterflies and flowers, but after several class assignments to photograph people, I fell in love with portrait photography.
When I started photographing people I was amazed by how they reacted when they saw photos of themselves. Their eyes sparkled, they were excited to see themselves and I could tell that they LOVED how they looked. I realized that we rarely have a chance to see ourselves how others see us. And when people do SEE themselves, they start believing they are awesome, they start feeling more CONFIDENT, and that has a potential to change one’s life.
Around the same time I started attending moon circles and doing yoga. The women I met at these events and classes became my models - I would practice my skills on them in exchange for photographs. Forests, beaches, fields, and all of nature was my photography studio. I felt that photography was not something that I did consciously, I felt that it was something that flowed through me, so when it was time for me to choose a name for my photography business, I couldn’t use my given name. So I decided to use the name of my alter ego, Francesca, and the word “bliss” which is what photography made me feel. And so I became Francesca Bliss.
Sometimes we play small and downgrade our abilities and skills just to not appear boastful. In childhood we may be taught not to stick out and we carry into adulthood this notion that we are not a big deal, we are like everyone else. The truth is, you are a big deal. You ARE unique. You ARE amazing. You are BEAUTIFUL. You are POWERFUL. I want to show you that so you can SEE for YOURSELF and feel it within you and then watch the magic unfold.