Why am I a photographer?

From a really young age I realized that I loved to make people beautiful. My grandmother had tons of fabric all over the place. We inherited a significant amount of that fabric and kept it all in one room. I would go into that room and dig around as I looked through this treasure trove and dreamed of the dresses that I could make for people . . . ‘people’ in this case being my two younger sisters. I would dress them up then make them up with the finest makeup the dollar store offered.

When I used all my grandmothers fabric I would tear up bed sheets to make dresses. My creative energy was constant and a little destructive.

Thanks for the fabric, Grandma Fox! This might be the first dress I ever made.

At 14 I got my first camera and photographed my sisters in the scrap fabric and sheet dresses I made (all by hand mind you. We couldn’t afford a sewing machine).

And I was hooked.

The beauty of what I was creating amazed me. I loved that I was stopping ti

me, I was stopping a moment, I was stopping the wind as it blew through hair, I was controlling and creating something magnificent and Vogue worthy!

Sheet dress- example one. On another note, I had crazy beautiful sisters to always photograph.

yeah . . . clearly a sheet. Thanks, mom and dad, for having an abundance of sheets while I was growing up.

At least I felt that at the time.

I’ve been humbled significantly since then. While I don’t rip up bed sheets anymore I do still make dresses for clients and the studio wardrobe. I’ve learned how to use a sewing machine but only in the most basic way. But more importantly, my love of making people beautiful has only gown and matured. I now see every single human I encounter as beautiful.

See this dress, totally, was once a set of curtains. Now it hangs in my studio wardrobe as a beautiful dress worn by incredible women.

I see you as worthy. I see you eternally valuable. Most people I photograph don’t see themselves this way. They forgot. They got lost. They got tired. But they come to me and I get to remind them. I get to create for my clients an incredible experience that revolves around them. They are the center of my day. They are the star of the show. They are the reason for my team and I showing up and taking care of them.

Why am I a photographer? Easy answer- I like to take beautiful pictures. My deep-down, center-of-my-soul answer: I want to help you remember that your beautiful. I want to remind you of who you are. I want to show you back to yourself the beauty that I see when I look at you. I want to take pictures of you that when you are having a hard day. When the day is long and the uphill climb keeps getting steeper. When the stretch marks don't go away and the extra weight you swore you’d loose is still there after five years. When your tired. When your so tired your spirit feels as though its been shackled to weights, I want you to look at those pictures and see yourself. Not your everyday self. Not the self thats exhausted to the bone. But your true self. Your whole self. Your self that knew and felt to your core that your were strong, vibrant, valuable, breathtaking, eternal, and so gosh darn worth it that you pick yourself up and keep joyfully walking forward. I’m a photographer because I believe that a beautiful portrait can change the way you see yourself for the rest of your life.

This is me shot just a few days ago by my sister.

I’m Melinda Fox. I’m a portrait photographer. I own Fox Photography by Melinda Fox. I invite you to my studio so I can change the way you see yourself.

Love, Melinda

Studio in Athens PA.

Serving Athens Pennsylvania, Towanda Pennsylvania, Corning New York, and Twin Tiers aria.