My photography is a blend of art, experience, and instinct. A little bit of this, a little bit of that.

It started 22 years ago, the first time I stepped into a darkroom. That was the beginning of everything, though I didn't know it yet. My actual first wedding came a few years later. I was 18, shooting entirely on film, and I completely overexposed every roll of black and white. I've never made that mistake again, but I think about that day more than almost any other. It's a good reminder that everyone starts somewhere unfinished.

From there, photography took me to ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena, where I spent years living in the darkroom, learning film the hard way, 4x5, 35mm, proper exposure, patience. That work turned into my first real documentary project, and eventually into a graduate degree at ICP/Bard in New York.

Through years of studying art and photography, both in undergraduate and graduate school, my aesthetic evolved under the influence of critical theory and contemporary art. I found myself drawn to the intersection of traditional documentary photography and spontaneous, unfiltered moments of real life. My goal is to create images that are raw, honest, and deeply human.

I spent six years in Brooklyn after that. I managed a working artist's studio, documenting her work, archiving paintings, coordinating with galleries, traveling for openings and installations in Brazil and Florida. It was a full, strange, formative stretch of life. I learned how to watch a room without disrupting it, how to notice what mattered before anyone pointed it out, and eventually, I realized this was something I wanted for myself. I wanted to work on my own vision.

So I left. I quit and spent four months backpacking through Asia alone, through Thailand, Singapore, Bali, Vietnam, and Japan. While in Japan, I reconnected with a high school friend. We met up, had our first date there, and I moved back to California not long after. Now living in San Diego, it took a few more years of figuring out what I actually wanted to make before I found my way to weddings.

I started experimenting with wedding photography in 2019. I entered the wedding world with one major goal in mind. I was going to do things differently than what I'd been trained to expect from the industry. I didn't want to shoot the overly posed, overly perfect version of a wedding day. I wanted to bring everything I'd learned, from the darkroom, from galleries, from watching artists work, from four months of paying close attention to a world that wasn't mine yet, into documenting a day that actually belonged to the people living it.

2025 brought my first international wedding, in Scotland. That trip changed how I think about this work, and I'm building toward more of it now: a couple of international weddings a year, alongside the San Diego weddings that started all of this. Travel plays a huge role in my creative process. I find inspiration in the unfamiliar, letting light, movement, and emotion guide my eye. Through this journey, I realized photography is my way of making sense of the world, turning fleeting moments into images that last. With a camera in hand, everything becomes a canvas, and every frame is a chance to reveal beauty in the unexpected.

Get to know me better

I'm a cat lover

I love hiking & long walks

I'm a great bar tender

Baked goods are my religion

I love playing Catan 

I grew up watching anime

I'm a big skin care lover

Homemade popcorn for life

I will live in Japan someday

I eat way too much ice cream

Hi, I'm Teresa

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