Life. Music. Photography.
Welcome to my Website/Blog.
I’ve been a photographer for over 40 years. Before I shot weddings, I shot models and Bands/Musicians. I’ve also been photographing family and friends since I could hold a camera in my hands.
Before photography I was a dancer. I started Classical Ballet at five years old. By 12, my dance teacher wanted to send me to Russia, to train with the Bolshoi Ballet. Apparently, I was that good! But, my parents would have none of that, and by 12, my mind was already getting distracted by boys, music, photography, and dozens of other things that would eventually pull me away from the total dedication and discipline it would have taken to become a professional ballerina. That, plus the fact, that if you ask close friends of mine they will tell you how clumsy I really am, in real life!
I’ve always loved music although I failed at playing any musical instrument I ever tried. Music has always been the “soundtrack” in the background of my life and songs remind me of different people, places and times.
Lately, with the advent of social media, I’ve gotten back in contact with old friends and lovers and I’ve found that I hold a precious piece of their lives, in the photographs that I took of them, during our times together. None of us knew how important photographs would be to us, in the years to come. Like how they would be the only thing left when a loved one passed on. Or, how they would remind us of our youth and how gorgeous and/or ridiculous we looked back then.
As a pro photographer, I try to show my prospective clients how very important their Wedding images are going to be, 20 years down the road. Or how documenting their family, through yearly portraits, is a way to preserve the past. My own Mother passed away when I was 22, but to this day, I can look back on the hundreds and hundreds of photographs that both myself and my Father took of her, and remember her and enjoy the moments that we did have together. Maybe by viewing my photos, you will realize how important those memories are to me, and make sure that you are creating memories like that for yourself.
I love photos and I’ll be posting a lot of personal photos on this blog. I hope some will touch you, I hope that some will make you laugh. I’ll post photos that were taken of me as a kid, that still hold powerful memories – I’ll post images that friends and I took of each other, which show the awful styles and terrible hairdo’s we’ve had – and I’ll also post images of the beautiful models and “Dreamy Boy” Rockstar boyfriends/friends that I’ve had the pleasure of knowing, photographing and working with throughout the years.
For me, Photography and Music have always gone hand in hand. Wasn’t it a Rod Stewart song that said: “Every Picture Tells a Story, Don’t it?!”
Well, photos really do tell a story and sometimes those stories don’t even need words.
Photo: Jeanette Kapustka (My Mother) and Mj Wilson (me) at our family’s Cottage on Lake Michigan, in Michigan City, IN.