Antonella — Joy
Photography, for me, is a sacred act of witnessing. It is not about poses, perfection, or performance. I create spaces where women and all who identify as women can arrive without armor, where breath slows, the land holds us, and the body remembers itself beyond roles and expectations. I guide through presence rather than direction, allowing something true to rise. The images are not the destination. The remembering is.
The Art of Remembering is a living series honoring the women I have photographed across landscapes and seasons of life. Each chapter holds a different threshold — joy, grief, reclamation, aliveness — yet what connects them is the quiet moment of recognition, when she sees herself clearly and remembers the truth that was always there.
Antonella came with a quiet desire: to feel joy with full permission.
Not the kind that arrives through accomplishment or approval. The kind that lives in the body steady, open, unguarded.
So much of life asks us to be capable. Reliable. Needed. Joy is not absent, but it often waits patiently beneath responsibility.
In the beginning, she stood still in the landscape, as if reacquainting herself with space that did not require anything from her. Her breath adjusted slowly. Her hands moved through her hair, not as a gesture, but as a clearing. The forest did not rush her.
And then something softened.
Her chest widened. Her face turned toward the light without effort. The shift was subtle but undeniable, not performance, not drama. A settling.
Later, at the edge of the water, she stepped in barefoot as dusk moved across the mountains. The surface of the lake held the sky in rose and gold. She did not try to look beautiful. She simply allowed herself to feel.
When she saw her images, she didn’t comment on the dress or the setting.
She said, “I feel like myself.”
That is the art of remembering.
Not becoming someone new.
Not performing joy.
But inhabiting it.
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P.S. I open a small number of sessions each season for this work. If you feel the quiet pull to experience yourself this way, you can reach out privately for details.
Con Amor
Antüpewma