We recently connected with Denise McMahon and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Denise thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s talk legacy – what sort of legacy do you hope to build?

Wow what a question and one that I don’t often take enough time to think about. My legacy…I want people to look at their photos that I’ve taken for them over the years and be able to tangibly hold in their hands and pass down for years to come. I want you to look back fondly and remember how things were during that exact point in time because that moment only ever happens once and then it’s gone – except for in your memories and in your senses. Those fleeting feelings that only come back in the form of smell, sight, and touch – the nostalgia that lingers on when you see your photos or your artwork. I want to be remembered for the conversations we have while we’re together, the joy you feel for yourself, for your loved ones, for your livelihood. I want to bring a smile to your face when you think of me or see the photos or artwork I’ve lovingly created for you. I hope to be remembered as a friend, a cheerleader, a part of your village, a person who willingly accepts and holds space for everyone around.

Denise, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi there!! I am Denise, sometimes D, and Mama to my little threenado. I am a wife, a mother, a sister, an aunt, a daughter, a photographer, an artist…and previously, an IT consultant. I majored in Information Systems and graduated from UMBC. I worked in the IT field for just over 10 years before I quit to stay at home with my new baby and said hello pandemic life at the same time. It’s hard to piece together my whole story without going off on tangents for each part that led to today but I’ll try!

I’ve had a camera in my hands since high school circa 2004, discovered the world of Nikon digital cameras in 2008 and got my first 85mm 1.8 prime lens in 2012. I’ve been shooting primarily with prime lenses since then. I founded Denise Van Photography LLC back in 2017 but not seriously and only part time because who was I to dream about doing this full-time when I had a good salaried job…and didn’t think I was ‘creative’ and ‘business saavy’ enough? I actually had quite the hardest time believing in myself and my work, in part because I let the words of a strong few craft my opinion of myself and my creativity, and I didn’t fight for myself to do something that I loved. It honestly wasn’t until I discovered watercolors in 2017 (we are digressing!) that I understood and acknowledged something within me at a deeper level – I am, in fact, incredibly creative, I am proud of it, and I have an unapologetically limitless imagination. For me, to create is to breathe, to simply be me. Whether it’s photography, watercolor, alcohol inks, or trying a new craft, it’s my happy place and I thrive in it. That’s the long story of how I got into my industries/crafts.

My motto is, I’m on a mission to bring light and a spirit of joy to your everyday life. I offer lifestyle photography for maternities, newborns, and families and brand/product photography for local businesses. I also pop up at local craft markets on occasion throughout the year with my watercolor and alcohol ink artwork and prints. All are always welcome here, as I believe that love is love, and I am proud to be a Chinese American woman in business. I am proud to give back both locally and nationally to various charities throughout the year and hope to continue doing so until I retire, if I ever do ;)

Learning and unlearning are both critical parts of growth – can you share a story of a time when you had to unlearn a lesson?

This I believe is something many people have to unlearn about having a career in the arts…I had this limiting belief that I couldn’t make a living doing photography or artwork full-time (‘the starving artist’ mentality). It was essentially a need to rewire my brain to understand and believe that I AM 100% worthy of making a respectable income that many others strive to make in other professions. I can live and provide for my family too with this profession, and we can live the life we envision for ourselves and that I can do it by charging not only what I’m worth, my experience, my craft, my skills, etc but also simply charging appropriately so I can sustain a solid income to thrive within. Photography and art requires not only professional gear and tools which cost $$$ but there are many other behind-the-scenes ‘invisible’ costs to run a business effectively and efficiently.

Have you ever had to pivot?

For a third of my life, I worked in the IT field. Did you like how I made that sound so dramatic? Technically it was from my early twenties until just my early thirties :) I worked for IBM, waddaup big blue, for quite some time and then moved onto a smaller IT consulting firm for the last few years. Throughout the course of those years, I wore so many hats. Business analyst, requirements analyst, tester, scrum master, ‘people wrangler’. Most of the time, whatever skill I picked up, I could do pretty well. But honestly, for all those years, there was just ‘the grind’, the 9-5 life, while making a really good salary.

Eventually I started to feel the toll of sitting in front of a computer all day (fun fact: never have I ever had a real window view). I was feeling such a lack of purpose and fulfillment and had so much of the ‘what am I doing here?’ sinking feeling, even though I really truly enjoyed the people I found myself working with by the end of my time in IT. I was even the breadwinner of the household by then. But still, my feelings came to a head those last few years, when my partner and I started trying for a baby.

It was a bit of a reality check, reeling from the anxiety over not being able to conceive and equally finding it so hard to work in the field I was in. I know the two situations were separate from one another and yet, it was hard to distinguish between them in my anxiety and sadness. I spiraled a lot and it took a lot of hard conversations with my partner (and friends) to realize that I was “living in the future”, painfully, wistfully thinking about what I wanted to come true versus living in the present. I almost refused to plan a trip overseas to Italy because “what if I did become pregnant and I couldn’t fly anymore because we picked a time when I would be in the third trimester?” Looking back at my thought process, I can see that it sounds ridiculous but when you’re in the thick of it, you just don’t see it.

What helped me out of my spiral? I started talking about our struggles to conceive. And I created art. I turned to my photography and my watercolors. I created self-portrait after self-portrait. I rediscovered creating for me. That I think was the “pivot”. It was not a split decision moment that changed the trajectory of my life. It was the purposeful “I pick me” and “I choose to love my life, no matter if we make a baby or not”, day in and day out. That was the pivot.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.denisevan.com
• Instagram: instagram.com/denisevanphotography
• Facebook: facebook.com/denisevanphotography
• Yelp: https://m.yelp.com/biz/denise-van-photography-south-riding
• Other: instagram.com/westmeadowcreative westmeadowcreative.etsy.com facebook.com/westmeadowcreativeart

Image Credits
In-Studio Headshots: Laura Metzler Photography