I am multidisciplinary, lens-based artist and designer living in Madison, Wisconsin with a background in Studio Arts and an MFA in Poetry. My work involves photography, web design, poetry, and graphic design with the tendency for each practice to inform the other. I photograph weddings, engagements, and editorials but also love to make making through language. I approach my work with intention, an abundance of care, and rigor. It is this perspective that allows me to build projects and collaborations that are hopeful and enduring. I support a Free Palestine. I think often of how nothing seems to rebuke. I think sharing information is my favorite type of gossip (I like to talk). I believe firmly in skill shares, bartering, and the art of the sliding scale—if you want to work together, I’d love to connect, regardless of your budget.
Clients often tell me they feel comfortable in front of my camera and that the images look like themselves, not a version of who they think they’re supposed to be (or a version pressured by trends). I step in when direction is helpful, especially during traditional portraits or moments of hesitation, and step back when things are unfolding naturally.
My approach is shaped by over a decade of photography training and time spent as an art and art history student learning how imagery has endured but elasticized over time. My history means I’m attentive to how something looks now and how it will live and age over time. I work with a true-to-life color palette and an eye on consistency through time.
“I sing the siren / palm the shell of every cicada, / turning it over like a stone or the almost / memory of jumping naked into the stream, / the swimming hole swollen with algae / We watch the light eddy / hold our breath in belows / You told me love / was running beside us / Your legs longer than lungs.”
— Water damage / Earth rot elegy, Hope Kelham, The Raleigh Review
Education
Purdue University
BA, Studio Arts (Photography & Related Media)
BA, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
BA, Creative Writing
Minor in Art History
Boise State University
MFA, Creative Writing (Poetry)