CHARLESTOWN — Charlestown photographer Amy Kristin Brief intends to make an announcement about ladies and growing older.
Sitting inside Amy Kristin Images, her boutique pictures studio on Outdated Submit Highway, tucked away on the primary ground of one among Charlestown’s oldest homes, Brief mentioned she needed to do one thing significant to mark Ladies’s Historical past Month and one thing memorable and significant to honor ladies.
Then inspiration hit — a photograph sequence that includes candid portraits of 40 ladies all 40 years of age and older.
“I’m a girl over 40,” mentioned Brief, a Richmond native who attended Richmond Elementary Faculty and graduated from Chariho Excessive Faculty in 1994. “And I really feel strongly that girls, as we age, acquire magnificence and knowledge however can usually be ignored by society.
“I needed to do one thing to empower ladies,” she added. “Ladies who’re older have a lot worth and a lot to provide to the remainder of us.”
By photographing the 40 ladies, she mentioned, she plans to seize their magnificence on movie, and assist to inform their tales. Ultimately, she thinks, she’ll compile the images right into a ebook or journal.
“I believe it may be one thing doubtlessly actually highly effective,” mentioned Brief, who’s within the early phases of her challenge, has 5 classes already booked and is actively looking for different candidates for the sequence. “I believe it may be a cool experiment.
“I’ve no set time actually, to complete,” Brief mentioned. “My purpose is to complete by the tip of the 12 months.”
Kristen Lombari of South Kingstown, a Gateway Healthcare skilled, has recognized Brief since her 13-year-old daughter was a 6 years previous.
“Amy’s been taking photos of my daughter ever since,” Lombari mentioned. “She’s actually good. She’s the true deal. Amy takes time to get to know her topics, and she or he captures them completely. … She captures their spirits. I’ve by no means seen something prefer it actually. … It is like one thing out of a fairy story.”
However as a lot as she trusts Brief and appreciates her artistry, Lombari mentioned she needed to assume twice earlier than agreeing to be in Brief’s sequence of girls over 40.
“She’s in all probability the one particular person I might do that for,” she mentioned. “I am going to admit I am a bit of nervous, however you have to escape of your consolation zone at times, and I do know Amy and I belief her.
“She’s at all times saying that we have to have one thing to carry on to, one thing to cross on to our youngsters,” added Lombari. “She says it is necessary to have tangible reminiscences and she or he’s proper.”
Lombari would be the first topic in Brief’s 40 ladies over 40 sequence.
“It is such an awesome concept,” Lombari mentioned.
“It is form of an experiment, a cool experiment,” mentioned Brief. “And I am going to get to fulfill different ladies who’re my age.”
Brief mentioned she’ll even get to the ladies’s homes and assist them select what to put on for the photograph shoots.
“I am going to even go into their closets,” she mentioned with fun, “and I am going to assist them with hair and make-up, too”
Age is a humorous factor, she mentioned, and too usually older ladies are hesitant to get in entrance of a digital camera.
“In my thoughts, I am nonetheless 17,” she mentioned. “Nobody tells you that you will nonetheless really feel like a child.”
Brief has been taking images since she was a teen, nevertheless it wasn’t till the delivery of her oldest nephew in 2007 that she actually fell in love with photographing folks, she mentioned.
“That was 15 years in the past,” she mentioned with fun. “I adopted him round like I used to be a paparazzi and started documenting his little moments, and every part grew from there.”
She has spent the time since taking images of newborns, household images, head photographs and branding images.
“I believe what makes me happiest is when folks see their images for the primary time and so they like them,” she mentioned. “It by no means will get previous.”
Along with photographing kids and households, she additionally presents particular person and group coaching and mentorships, each in particular person and on-line, for newbie and intermediate photographers, starting from technical to modifying to managing the enterprise finish of issues.
“The media and society usually make ladies assume that we lose worth as we age,” she mentioned, “however the reverse is true. Ladies who’re over 40 have tales to inform and classes to show and are stunning and sensible. These images will likely be a legacy.
“So in case you are 40 or 54 or 75 or 102, or something in between there, name me so that you might be one of many forty,” Brief mentioned in her invitation. “I am unable to wait to fulfill you. It’s so necessary to have a good time who you’re and the place you’ve come from. … These images can show that.”
Brief invitations ladies over 40 to provide her a name at 401-749-6934 or e mail data@amykristin.com.