Today we’d like to introduce you to Mariah Maddox.
Hi Mariah, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I first found my interest in photographs when my mother used to pull out her old shoeboxes full of captured stills. This was our love language, a favorite pastime that we share to this day. Dusting off the boxes, fingers rummaging through memories, smiles creeping across our faces as we reveled in each moment of time.
And then I picked up a camera. That moment was when I truly fell in love with the world around me. The camera became what translated every language that was foreign to me, or misunderstood. I became the studier of my surroundings, of human emotion and behavior. Through my lens, I began capturing people in their rawest forms and to this day, I deem myself honored to carry the weight of such a gift. The visual medium is how I ground myself with the Earth. It is how I create harmony where dissonance exists. To me, there is no greater joy than having a piece of a moment to cherish forever. I think about the stories that I am weaving for my children, my grandchildren, and every generation that will rise up beneath me. One day, all they’ll have are my photographs to tell them stories of the woman I existed as, and I hope through those alone, they will know all my grit and all my glory.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Being a photographer has not been the smoothest road, but nothing is ever easy. That’s what makes it worth it.
I can recall countless times when I wanted to give up when I felt like I just couldn’t find my creative voice or creative territory. Not to mention that the expectation to create content can be exhausting. I’m a mother, a wife, and still work another job. Sometimes, I need to disconnect myself from the social media world in order to enjoy the moments that are right in front of me. So maybe I go weeks or months without posting a photo. I used to feel bad about it, but now I appreciate my ability to establish boundaries. This comes easy when I honor that there is a version of me that exists beyond Instagram, Facebook, or any other social platform. This comes easy when rather than capturing moments through my camera lens, I create a stillness of the moments in which I exist. And even though I may not have a picture to look back at from every aspect of my life, I have the feelings that were felt, the emotions that were produced, and the people that I existed in those moments with. That’s what matters most to me.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I like to call myself a visual storyteller. I “still” moving moments. My specialty is portrait photography, and I’d like to believe that is what I’m known for when people hear my business name. I’m most proud of the relationships I have had the opportunity to create through being a photographer. Being able to meet new people and learn them well enough to tell their stories through images thrills me.
When people speak about my work, they highlight the fact that I capture people in a very natural, almost whimsical element. I pride myself on that. I don’t want to alter anyone’s original form too much, which is why I lightly edit and stick to getting candid moments. My job isn’t to change someone’s appearance, but to make them fall in love with the version of themselves that I capture through my lens. You know the saying “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder?” Well, I don’t see myself as the beholder. I just see myself as the mirror that allows the beholder (my clients) to look into their reflection. And with every person I capture, I just hope that they see the beauty that encompasses them.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
I love the creativity that floods Toledo. What I don’t like about the city, though, is that people pick and choose whom to support. There are so many “hole-in-the-wall” creatives, as I like to call them, that I don’t feel like they get the recognition they deserve because people choose whom to acknowledge or whom to support based on popularity. We can do a better job of supporting all our creatives, whether they’re just starting off or have spent years in the game.
Contact Info:
- Email: viewsbyri@gmail.com
- Website: www.viewsbyri.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/viewsbyri/?hl=en
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ViewsByRi/
Image Credits
Mariah Maddox
