We were lucky to catch up with Dasha Denger recently and have shared our conversation below.
Dasha, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard.
As with all industries, Fashion Photography is a fairly unique but somewhat cookie cutter craft. A lot of photographers copy and create the same ideas as they’ve seen in other magazines, while others take their own path but still maintain that streamline attitude to creating work that will please the masses because they have after all, paid very close attention to all the technicalities of the project. I on the other hand have always felt that photography and the craft of photographing as well as retouching can only go so far. The rest of the magic truly does come from that human connection.
Having been a photographer for 15 years it nearly that long to realize that most of the magic I created on set has always been through the personal, one on one connections I’d build with the model and creative team. Having finally realized my life’s true purpose in guiding others to self-betterment this past year I have revised and re-launched my creative work to reflect my spiritual work and now I operate both as a Spiritual Guide & Photographer offering my clients the ultimate signature offer, “The Personal Awakening Experience”.
Though it sounds a tad unorthodox to connect two areas that vary so greatly, I firmly believe that both myself and my clients who seek spiritual enlightenment and photographic services, deciding between one or the other is no longer necessary. The reason I say they go hand in hand is simple: To see ourselves in the best possible light, to feel self-love and compassion for our bodies, our minds, and our spirits we must first connect and align our being from within. The outside reflection of who we are will always feel a little off, a little unsatisfactory or even unpleasant, until we have found that utmost self-love and appreciation that we are always searching for.
The Personal Awakening Experience is a strategically organized program meant for the select few in the terms that most are not seeking spiritual advice when they need their headshots done.. True. But vice versa, those who are seeking creative imagery captured with their essence will find great benefit when they have stepped fully and with courage into embodying their true selves on a much deeper, internal level via the on-on-one spiritual sessions I provide in my signature offer.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
My name is Dasha Denger, I am a first generation immigrant from Russia and I am a Spiritual Guide & Photographer.
I first got into the industry of photography at a very young age, I began photographing nature, friends and family when I was only 14. In 2009 I opened my own boutique photography business catering to High School Seniors, photographing portraits, events and families. From there my passion for photography grew when I eventually retired from senior portraits and focused my career solely on fashion & editorial photography around 2018. Shortly after I moved to Chicago, IL and continued to pursue my fashion, beauty and retouching career from there. Around the end of 2021, post many COVID transformations my business and personal life had already undergone, I decided to yet again change direction and focus my attention on what truly had been igniting my passion since starting out and that is Spiritual Guidance.
I have been reforming and restructuring my business model to provide my clients with an all inclusive Spiritual Guidance experience where we connect and create on a much deeper, more intimate level. My signature offer is called “The Personal Awakening Experience” and it features one-on-one spiritual coaching and guidance sessions to help bring more awareness of how big of a role spiritual development really plays in our daily life. The final portion of the program is an intimate, raw and bold photography session called “The Divine Within” capturing the most enlightened version of you. This kind of experience is first of it’s kind and is not something that is easily found among spiritual coaches or photographers alike. It’s something new both for myself and for everyone else, I’m sure! But ultimately, I am so ignited to be able to provide such a necessary stepping stone for those who are seeking to make permanent changes in their life by combining photography with spiritual guidance.
Having a unique ability to combine creative talents and technical skills gathered over the past 15 years in the photography industry with the ability of guiding others to make lasting life changes through my “Spherical Knowledge System” which I especially devised for the Personal Awakening Experience, I am helping others shift from their current situation into a new, more positive and abundance filled reality.
“Everything outside of ourselves is but a reflection of what is within. When we heal and put ourselves first, our outer reality begins to shift and the life changes we so hope for, finally begin to materialize.” – Dasha Denger
When people are ready and wanting to make huge life changes but perhaps are stuck in their old paradigm and do not know how to move forward, this signature offer really helps to give that initial push that we all need in order to make necessary life changes actually happen. At the core of the program is self-love and acceptance. I believe all who wish to better their lives must first start by looking inward and finding who they are and who they wish to become. With careful guidance and compassion, healing parts that need healing and connecting to our higher selves, we can then begin to step onto our path with purpose.
My method is by no means the one and only way to bettering your life, of course not. But my hope is that I can connect and resonate with those who are seeking advice in the spiritual and personal development realm above all things! I honestly feel that the photography portion of the signature offer is just the cherry on top! It’s such a fun and personalized experience, always catered to my clients needs with love and kindness in mind but Is not the sole purpose of the connection.
“The Divine Within Photoshoot more as a gorgeous reward for giving it your all in your spiritual journey than just a forgetful, portrait headshots for the year.” – Dasha Denger
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
This journey is one that is still ongoing! I feel my story is one that has no ending as spiritual growth is a constant, life changing event that starts when we are born and goes beyond this lifetime. Best way to start would probably be to fill in some prior details about what made me shift my consciousness and decide to elevate my reality to what it is now.
I feel I had been going through life asleep for the most part, much like everyone else, stuck in limiting beliefs and self-sabotage. It was around June or July back in 2020 that I had my first real crossroads moment when I had to snap out of whatever numb and downward spiraling mindset I was in and wake up to the world around me. A lot of personal changes happened very quickly, leaving me feeling very hopeless and unable to move forward both in my personal development as well my career. When COVID happened it really shook the very foundation of my reality and only then was I able to confront myself fully about the person I was and the person I knew I wanted to become.
Long story short, I ended up single and penniless, alone for the most part, feeling very unwelcome and unwanted by the old life I was in the process of leaving behind. The most uncomfortable part of the transformation was feeling like I had no hope, I had no positive outlook that my life was going to turn around. But because of this, I kept finding myself tapping more and more into spiritual practices and beliefs than I had ever thought possible. Mind you, I have been a very atheistic type of person and the idea of meditating, speaking with the universe or my “guides” was definitely NOT something I was OK with! lol Let me tell you, for a while there I was very strongly against all things spiritual and the idea of “talking” to beings I could not see, feel or hear was like.. so far from what felt normal to me that I remember just bluntly denying anything that would actually give me blind hope or faith in the future.
But when so many life events take place and crumble the very foundation of your life, you are left with very little in terms of support. I found the only support I had, was myself. My inner strength, my inner knowing, and resilience guided me to finding more purpose and more faith in my life because for the first time I actually felt that there may be a deeper connection between myself and my reality because I started spending more time alone in with my thoughts and more in nature where I felt deeper understanding for all the smaller critters on this planet. That really blossomed into more compassion and appreciation of all things that were not myself creating a feeling unity and oneness with the universe.
When I began to meditate, journal, at times take other-worldly journeys through astral projection or ludic dreaming, I felt such a strong connection to the source of all energy (life) running through myself, that it helped build the trust and relationship with my higher self and my spirit guides that I have now.
With time, little by little, uncertainty and fear was replaced with cautious optimism and faith that all things will always turn in my favor if the intention I set is positive and loving. Because I firmly believe, nothing good can come to us when we build from a place of hate or anger. We must first find love and acceptance within ourselves and for all others in order to allow abundance and positive change into our lives.
What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?
The major lesson that I had to unlearn on my spiritual journey to finding my purpose in life, was this. What we have been taught as children about “Self-Love and Acceptance” has been a false interpretation. Self-Love and Acceptance is not a selfish belief that we are the center of the universe, separate from all things and above all the rest. But rather, the reality is, when we love and truly see and accept who we are for all the good and the bad that make up our very complex beings we can then connect as one, in perfect unity to our reality, our world and the people we share it with. Practicing compassion, love and kindness as our core belief from where we stem most of our intentions out of therefore creating and building rather than destroying or controlling ourselves and others out of fear.
The personal shift, the necessary changes we all unconsciously dream of, are only ever possible when we fully accept ourselves and see into our being almost as a blueprint (seeing our being and our lives as if printed on a map of our reality) and then taking small steps toward positive, permanent change by bettering our spiritual bodies by first getting clear with who we are and who we want to become. Connecting to our higher selves, accepting our darkest shadow self, healing our old patterns of belief and triggering wounds as well as finding our strengths and superpowers that essentially all help us align with our path in life in leading a purpose driven life.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://www.dashadengerexperience.com
- Instagram: @dashadengerexperience
Image Credits
All Photographs were taken and retouched by Dasha Denger.