2025: A Year of Contrast
The feeling that sits in my body when I think about this year is overwhelm.
Not the frantic kind, though there was plenty of that. More the kind that comes from being stretched in opposite directions at the same time. From holding joy and grief in the same hands. From things expanding while other things quietly fell apart.
Work was good this year. Really good. And my personal life was hard. One of the hardest years I can remember. That contrast defined 2025 more than anything else.
There were long stretches where everything felt like it was shedding. Beliefs I have spent too many years carrying. Patterns that once kept me safe but no longer fit. Ways of measuring myself against things that were never meant to define me. That kind of internal work is not gentle. It asks you to look directly at yourself, without escape.
I was not ready for my relationships to be tested the way they were. I did not expect trust to feel so fragile. There were many moments this year where I felt heartbroken, lost, angry, and unsure of who I was becoming in the middle of it all. This year nearly broke me personally, and I think it matters to say that plainly. Sometimes things are just hard.
And somehow, alongside all of that, work became my steady ground.
Photography felt clearer this year. More embodied. Less reaching, more rooted. I trusted myself in the work in a way I never quite had before. I stopped trying to contort myself to fit expectations that were not mine. I said no when something did not feel right, even when it would have been easier to say yes. Especially then.
The work that found me felt aligned. So many fellow women building businesses with heart. Conversations that felt like recognition rather than negotiation. Inquiries that landed and felt like a quiet yes in my body before my brain caught up.
I didn’t need to chase work this year. It came through people talking to people. Through trust passed hand to hand. And somehow, my little business grew beyond anything I had imagined. In only my second year doing this full time, I exceeded the financial goal I set for myself by a wide margin. Not because I pushed harder, but because I trusted what I was building.
There were days where work was the place I could breathe. Where showing up with my camera felt grounding. Where creating something honest felt like relief.
At the same time, my inner world was in motion. My marriage was stretched. My relationship with my body and my health shifted in ways I am still integrating. I leaned hard on friendships. I let myself be supported. I sat in rooms where things were named instead of avoided. I learned that balance is not a static thing, but something you renegotiate again and again. Sometimes daily.
amidst all of this, I felt a stronger pull to share my world with Mia. To let her see all of it. The work, the tiredness, the joy, the struggle, the pauses. To show her that life is not about having it all figured out, but about staying connected to yourself through it all.
Somewhere in all of this, I stopped trying to fit myself into someone else’s idea of who I should be. I am still learning how to trust without armouring myself in the process, and Insecurity still shows up from time to time, but it doesn’t get to lead anymore.
As I move toward 2026, I feel a pull to keep pushing, with even more intention. To collaborate more. To protect the intimacy of my work. To stay close to the people I photograph. To let things grow without losing myself along the way.
If you’re reading this and standing in your own season of contrast, I hope you know this. You can be deeply grateful and deeply tired at the same time. You can be proud of one part of your life while another feels unbearably tender. Both can exist. Both can be true.
If I had to describe this year without dressing it up, it would be: What the fuck?!
And still, I am deeply proud of all that came to be. ✨
Here are some of my favourite images from 2025.
