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Hello world! Love, Mates Of Soul Collective.
I wasn’t an artsy high schooler. I’m not one of those people that can say i carried a camera around throughout high school, went to college for art and photography, and knew this is what i wanted to do at an early age. When I picked up a camera, it wasn’t even the art of it that drew me to it. In fact, it was the opposite. I felt inadequate BECAUSE I didn’t identify as someone who had an artist mindset. I picked up the camera because I craved connection with people. I picked up the camera because in my rawest form of honesty, I know that I feel everything so deeply that I wanted to never forget anything and the only way to control that was to freeze it in the form of a photograph. So I don’t call myself an artist. I genuinely don’t think that I am. I am just a human being who wants to remember moments forever and my approach is just that: to freeze time. To freeze moments and feelings I never want to forget. And then I take it one step further and freeze moments for others that I feel like they never want to forget. And I hope that our visions of what we never want to forget align.
Mates of Soul Collective stemmed from the idea that while we should celebrate all religions, genders, higher powers and spiritualities, a civil union is about humans loving humans at the end of the day. Its about your person being your person. It’s about two souls joining and deciding on forever. The big ceremonies, the expensive dresses and shoes, the suits, the flowers-they are wonderful and amazing and trust me I loveeee to photograph it all! But when all of that fades away and your wedding is over-what’s left is two souls and their new lives together. The growing old, the growing wise, the GROWING. Your photos should represent THAT more than anything else. Your photos should take you back to the love that started it all. I want to take you back to what surrounded that love and what that love stands for.
So when I take pictures of things you don’t seem to think about or care about-it’s not me being “artsy,” even though that’s how most people would explain it or call it-it’s because I want you to remember that mud on your dress, or the honeysuckles in bloom, or the very specific sunset that canvassed the sky on YOUR wedding day that won’t match another single day throughout your time on this planet. Because those moments are what you won’t look back on unless they’re presented to you. But those are the details that are timeless. Those details last forever. I want you to take these photos to show your grandkids and I want them to FEEL what you felt! Perfect portraits are great-but imperfection is emotional. Mates of Soul Collective to its core is about the love between two beautiful humans and that celebration. And their families, villages, all the humans that support that love. It even trickles out to the family two beautiful people start: the little people you create or raise and their little people. It ALL starts with the love of two humans. Two soulmates. Thats what makes the world go round.
Thanks for letting me rant (lecture) and for being here. For supporting me in every stage of my journey. Thank you for letting me do what I love, for showing up for me.
This rebrand was such a labor of love. I put it all out there on this one. I hope you love it just as much as I do.
xx, Nichole
May 1, 2023
