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Proud pup mom, type A creative, lover of the outdoors, Top Chef fan girl, and wedding and portrait photographer. Welcome to the blog!
HI, I'M RACHEL!
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I actually started this post right after the Paris bombings last November, when a series of coordinated terrorist attacks took place around the city. What struck me the most after that nightmare wasn’t the terror the victims felt or the hatred the attackers harbored, for we are all so familiar with those sentiments nowadays, as sick & sad as that is to say. What touched me the most was the letter from Antoine Leiris to the terrorists. Antoine Leiris lost his wife in the nightclub bombing. He lost the love of his life, the mother of his child. Someone who was real and special and unique – not just a faceless human as she was to the attackers. He experienced a true tragedy, one that would affect his & his son’s lives for the remaining days they spend on this earth, and yet he refused to give the terrorists what they wanted. He met gut wrenching, life altering, mind bending tragedy with the one thing that would truly make a difference: LOVE. His letter is a testament to the love he felt & still feels for his wife. To me that was worth remembering.
I was reminded of Antoine’s letter on Sunday, the day the worst mass shooting in American history took place. I was especially touched by this massacre because it took place not only where people gathered to have fun & let loose, as we are all entitled to do, but in a place where people were specifically targeted for their sexual orientation – for who they love. Love was literally under attack here. June is LGBTQ Pride month, so the fact that this attack took place during this time of celebration is incredibly poignant & heartbreaking. For a community who has fought so hard to have the same rights as ‘straight’ people in this country to have been attacked in one of the places they probably felt most safe is just down right disgusting and unthinkable. It’s difficult to put into words how unsettled this makes me.
The LGBTQ community is a tough one. They’ve experienced extreme discrimination and still do to this day despite great strides being made in their fight for equality. In my experience, they have unbelievable resolve. In the face of discrimination, violence, and now terrorism, they rise & maintain their identity. They are proud of who they are and who they love, even when people tell them to their faces they are wrong or even sinful. To me, there is nothing braver than to be yourself when it could literally cost you your life. It’s such a simple thing many of us take for granted, but some people in the world have to fight for the right to just be themselves.
In listening to the news coverage of the Orlando Pulse shootings, I found myself thinking about how hateful someone must be in order to willfully murder dozens of completely innocent people who they don’t even know. People who have done nothing to him personally, so he couldn’t have a vendetta or anything against them to want to end their lives. This type of hatred is propagated throughout the world – it’s certainly not unique to the United States. And in that instant, I was reminded about how important it is to be a part of and promote celebrations of love.
I am a photographer because I truly love it and am impassioned by it. My aim in moving forward with my photography business is to focus more on weddings, and I’ve gotten plenty of incredulous responses from people who don’t understand why I would want to do that. They find it stressful, difficult, and don’t want to deal with unsatisfied ‘bridezillas.’ But what fuels my fire is that I am participating in true celebrations of love. Weddings are a time when two people bring together family & friends who wish them well, support them, believe in them, and want to celebrate them being in LOVE. And I feel lucky & honored to bear witness to & capture all of that through my lens. I believe those days should be documented in the most beautiful way.
A wedding is a celebration of love, and gay people having gained the right to marry is the perfect example of love winning over hate. I truly believe the more love there is in the world, the less chance there is that hate can exist and prevail. So if I can be a small part of promoting love by choosing to photograph weddings, I’m proud, happy, and fulfilled.
While there is plenty to do in the wake of tragedy such that took place this past weekend, one small thing we can all do is choose love whenever we can. Choose to feel it, give it, and promote it wherever you go. Choose empathy, patience, and tolerance, which in my opinion are all ingredients to the big L.O.V.E.
I leave you with some photos that depict love in its purest form and wish peace and love to the victims & injured as well as their families & friends. <3
HELLO@RACHELEHPHOTOGRAPHY.COM
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Rachel is a wedding and portrait photographer
Serving brilliant, elegant couples in Washington D.C. + Beyond
Copyright 2022 Rachel E.H. Photography | Website by Alex Collier Design
she / her
[…] may remember the post I did over the summer where I talked about why I photograph weddings. This post is similar to that, […]