We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Alyssa Kapnik Samuel a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Alyssa, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Let’s kick things off with your mission – what is it and what’s the story behind why it’s your mission?

​In 2016, I had a traumatic birth, and it took me a few months to realize that the thing I really needed most was to process my birth experience with other women. The best way I could think to do that was to talk with and photograph women right after birth. It was incredibly therapeutic for me to work through my experience by being present and documenting the other mothers. I still feel “postpartum” all these years later. Whatever that means…. And so I use these sessions as a way to connect with women about birth, bonding, and motherhood. It’s incredibly moving for me to get to shape this space in my life, and to help other women capture and remember their own early motherhood.

Once I realized the power of connecting with women through bonding photographs, I saw that the process and style of photographs could be used for even more good.

According to the CDC, Native, Alaskan Native, and Black women have a mortality rate during or right after birth 4-5 times higher than their white counterparts after age 30. Before age 30, the mortality rates for these women during or right after birth are 2-3 times higher. The CDC itself defines this as a national issue, and says these numbers aren’t affected by education level, and it’s true for women nationwide. The numbers are a deep and painful example of systemic racism, all over our country.

In 2020, maternal deaths increased by as much as 41% after the pandemic was declared. And with the end of Roe v. Wade, these numbers are only expected to increase dramatically more.

For a few years now, I’ve invited in the studio Black and Native women specifically, in order to create a series of photographs to hang in women’s clinics and birth centers. The series is simple and beautiful, and all about love and connection. Skin to skin. Mama to babe.

Art can’t necessarily change a racist system, but through art, we have the power to shine a light on the joy and love women bring in birthing new life. We have an opportunity to humanize women in these three communities — Alaskan Native, Black, and Native — and to show depth and beauty in the love and intimacy these women bring to their families, to their children. We have an opportunity to empower marginalized women, to show them that they belong in medical spaces. That they are celebrated and welcomed.

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers

I’ve been a professional photographer for about 12 years, but I’ve been learning how to look through a camera since I can remember. It’s a true and intwined part of me. I think my mother started sharing her camera with me when I was about 7 years old, and it became a fixture in my life. A way for me to calmly and safely connect with other people. It’s evolved over the year into a kind of social lubricant, a tool for self-empowerment and growth, and a way I relate and express myself.

The camera brings me confidence, and helps me see things I might have otherwise missed. That we all would have otherwise missed. I find the camera to be an incredible tool to dig into the importance of a moment. Of a bond. Of a life.

I’m not interested in photographing for a “look”. I’m not about posing and manipulating a scene to feel happy. Some of my favorite photographs aren’t even expressing “happiness”. Because I really believe that our relationships with everyone, including our young children, are complicated. I can’t get to the heart of the bond if all we can explore is the surface. The joy. The perfection. It’s the imperfections, the challenges, the in-between moments, that reveal the most beautiful, relatable truths. Real love doesn’t always look smiley. It’s layered and rich and honest. I love that.

I think one of the aspects of my work that I love the most is that it empowers me every day, but my clients also tell me that they feel empowered. One mama said, “I’m sure this is not new in the mom’s you photograph, but I am not at all comfortable in my body right now. Just doing a photoshoot like this is an act of bravery. I want to do this while I am in an uncomfortable space with my body to model for [my daughter] complete and total self-love at any stage of who you are.”

Another mama said, “I love the rawness of the [photographs you took of me and my baby]! [My babe] has the sweetest most innocent face. Seeing the emotion and joy in his face really outweighs dramatically the way I look at my body and its complete imperfections. These photos are really helping me find the beauty in what I struggle with on a daily basis.”

We don’t always *see* women. We don’t often acknowledge how hard individual women work to bond with their children, to make it through each challenging day. I find that women don’t end up in nearly as many family photos — the quick cell phone snaps. And it really does matter. Our representation in our own family history books matters a great deal.

Photographs can be incredibly powerful in how we see ourselves, and our relationship with our children. And a session that is all about love can honestly make a difference. One of my clients wrote to me, “[The] photos are just stunning. I felt even closer to my daughter after doing the photo shoot.”

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

When I started my business, I was basically taking any kind of photo work. You want me to photograph your prom afterparty? Sure. You want me to photograph your engagement photographs in a cemetery? Sure. You want me to photograph you for your website? Why not. I took weddings and family sessions and engagements. I just wanted to be considered a photographer. I wasn’t really learning any particular art, I was just trying to get by with my camera.

But when I had my baby, I realized that I really didn’t want to do anything but focus on pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. And as I dove deeper into each of these things, I realized that I mostly just wanted to focus on postpartum. The rawness, the realness, the deep love. It is such an intimate time, such a beautiful and complex moment in a mother’s life. One that lasts for years. I love that I get to focus so narrowly now. I get to work with women in a deeper way because I don’t spread myself thin by offering myself for many different kinds of work. This is the work I need to be doing right now, and it’s truly a joy.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

As a woman, I’ve been raised to be a people pleaser. It’s not anything anyone said to me, but the implication to young women is: be good. Follow this course. Say yes.

Drawing boundaries around myself is a continuing practice and struggle for me in all aspects in my life, but definitely in my work life. For instance: I don’t typically allow men into my studio — mostly because I find that men are often harder to connect with on a deeper level. Intimacy and flexibility are incredibly important to creating beautiful, deep, meaningful portraits in my studio. So I’ve decided that I prefer to do that work with women.

Being able to say no when someone asks me to break my rule, or if someone asks me to do work I don’t believe in, has been a huge and important shift in my life. This is not to say that I’m always great at keeping these boundaries, but I’m always working on it. Saying no to something I don’t want can sometimes be as powerful as saying yes to something I do want.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.alyssakapnik.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alyssakapnikportraiture/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alyssakapnikportraiture
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/alyssa-kapnik-portraiture-denver

Image Credits
These are all my photographs, so credit Alyssa Kapnik Samuel.