We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Diana Hinek a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Diana, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.

There is something that ignites in me, when I stand in front of my muse. Whether it’s a woman giving birth, my children playing, the California sunset. I pursued a Master Degree in Digital and Photographic Imaging and spent almost a decade working in the film industry as a digital compositor.
During that time I didn’t always have the opportunity to chase after my personal artistic vision, so later on when decided to open my own photography business, I realized that not only did I have the opportunity to spend time with my children, but also to fully embrace my passion for the visual arts.

Diana, 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?

I became passionate about birth work after the birth of my daughter. Out of personal necessity, I realize how deeply mothers needed a village and a million resources to thrive and raise their children. I was one of them and I felt so lost and lonely when my first baby was born. I quickly got into birth work after the birth of my second child, when surrounded by the love of midwives I tasted what birth could really be for women. Powerful, empowering, magnificent, life-changing.
In a way I became addicted to that feeling. I wanted to preserve it, not only for myself but every woman and child.
I think documenting birth through photography and videography is the perfect opportunity to simply save that transcendent experience forever.
It takes courage and it takes lots of effort because living a life on-call is certainly not for the faint of heart. But it is so rewarding and so beautiful at the same time.
Social Media have certainly played a huge part in the sharing of the beauty of birth, but there is a lot of controversy that comes from mamas feeling judged when their birth stories are shared and also the lack of value toward the craft of birth documentary itself.
So many times our work is not credited, or shared and edited without permission and simply used by other social media influencers and birth workers who do not see the value in birth documentary but do not hesitate to use it to promote their own business and agenda.

Is there something you think non-creatives will struggle to understand about your journey as a creative? Maybe you can provide some insight – you never know who might benefit from the enlightenment.

The hardest part of documenting birth is the being on call 24/7 for 4 weeks for each birth. There is also a huge amount of work that goes undervalued after the birth; I put my heart and soul in the editing process. While it’s true that each film I produce is the representation of my vision of a specific birth, my goal is to capture its essence and ideally for mom and the family giving birth to remember how they felt during their birth. As birth photographers/videographers we are on call as much as midwives, doulas, OBs. There is the assumption that we should be getting paid less than anyone else, while we actually work really hard like everyone else.
There is also the assumption that documenting birth is a luxury, but what is more valuable that preserving the memories and reactions of your partners and children when they first meet the new baby? To me that moment is simply priceless.

Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

I wish I had trusted more that practice makes it genius. After my third baby was born, I spent almost every day photographing him and took the challenge of creating a 365 album for his first year of life.
It was not only a remarkable opportunity to practice and improve my skills, but it also gave me the forever gifts of those moments being preserved forever.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.dearbirth.com
• Instagram: @dearbirth
• Facebook: www.facebook.com/dearbirth
• Other: https://vimeo.com/dearbirth

Image Credits
All Images are Copyrights of Dear Birth, Diana Hinek.