Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Jennifer Toole. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Jennifer, appreciate you joining us today. Can you tell us a story about a time you failed?

Yes, of course. Years ago, when I was working in L.A., I had scored an exciting, high-profile gig shooting the still advertisement photos for a new reality television show. Four L.A. women in their fifties were the stars of the show and they all had a similar look ie. same tan, same blonde hair colour, same nose job, same boob job, same face-lift etc. My instructions from the client were to use “Kardashian levels of retouching” on the four women. I went back and forth with the client several times with what I would submit as the final images, and each time they pushed back and asked for more airbrush, more sculpting. At one point, the women had been photoshopped into oblivion. They had all become the same version of L.A. Barbie, completely indistinguishable from one another. I found myself Googling past images of each woman and going back into the edit to re-individualize each one of them from images of their younger selves. We did finally get the edit right for the client and the photos were published, but I found myself spiritually and morally injured from the process. I have always used my eye to celebrate women’s natural beauty, decidedly without using Photoshop, in an effort to combat what I call an epidemic of insecurity in women. I decided to take a break from commercial photography for a while after this shoot to focus on shooting The Goddess Array series. The Goddess Array then grew to include images of forty ancient Greek goddesses reimagined, shot in the nude in the wild on film without retouching. The series became a book and has been shown in three galleries thus far. Sharing The Goddess Array with the world has been a healing, empowering journey that was invigorated by the personal failure of that reality TV editing crisis.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I am an American/Canadian photographer currently based out of the Toronto area working in the genres of editorial, commercial, portrait and fine art photography. My favourite subject is people. The process of coaxing a person’s essence out of them and capturing it on film to be remembered forever gives me great joy.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

My work is how I heal. My past projects like The Goddess Array, Herself, and The Esteem Project were made in the radical spirit of creating spaces for women to love ourselves just exactly as we are. It was thrilling and healing for me, and hopefully for my subjects too, to pay witness to their beauty, act as a mirror with my camera, and show them just how beautiful they are through the images we created together.

I have always used my creative journey to heal my wounds. I am working on a film now. It is in the early writing stages. I hope that in sharing my journey others with similar trauma paths will be inspired to do their own healing work. And, of course, I always aim to entertain.

Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

It has always been word of mouth. When you do a great job people notice. They first notice the photos, wherever they are published, and if the photos strike a cord, the viewer will ask who took the photo. And voila, a new client is born.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.jennifertoole.com
• Instagram: @jentoole

Image Credits

Photos by Jennifer Toole

Portrait of Jennifer by Becca Lemire