This photoshoot was extra special and is now my all-time favorite. I capture love on a daily basis from weddings to newborns, but photographing my own family is a whole different ball game. My Mimi and Pop-Pop just celebrated a huge anniversary milestone, 55 years, last January, and as I’m getting older (and more sentimental), I wanted to photograph them like I would any other couple. I am a third generation photographer, and Mimi was the one who introduced me to this lifelong passion turned career. As a kid, I was photographed constantly, and I was given professional grade photos of every event, party, recital I was ever a part of. Mimi has a meticulous eye for detail, and she taught me to slow down, take my time, and make the photo “just right.” Now, that innate eye for detail came from HER father (my great-grandfather). H. Lee Waters was a photographer in North Carolina and changed the industry as we know it today. He revolutionized the photo and video world, and now Duke University has published his entire life’s work. A folk musician also put songs to his movies and toured the United States to show his work; I saw the show back in 2017 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It is so incredible to have color film of your family from the 1940’s, and I might be one of the only people that is able to say that I have that.
Needless to say, photography is in my genes, and I could not be prouder of who I got it from. Mimi and Pop-Pop exemplify what a successful, happy marriage is. I could only hope that myself and my spouse will share the same love after being married for 56 years! 78 and 81 years old have never looked better, and I love them both so dearly. I cannot wait to show my children one day how amazing and in love their great grandparents still were in their late 70’s and early 80’s.
*Special shoutout to Kate Cusamano (Kate Makeup Artistry) for making my Mimi feel like a queen! And for my best friend/assistant Maddie for making them laugh lots.
If you want to learn more about the amazing work my great-grandfather did in the early 1900’s with photography and filmmaking- click here!
