Creative self portrait photography ideas

Vanessa Skotnitsky Photographic Artist

My name is Vanessa Skotnitsky, I am a photographic artist. During my lifetime I have experienced issues with mental health, family and friends with addictions issues, domestic abuse and living in poverty. At times it felt like the dark stuff in life was attached to me. I have always had a deep longing for something else, I remember being around 8 or 9 years old watching Disney’s animated beauty and the beast every day after school, there was one line from one song that stuck with me. “I want adventure in the great wide somewhere, I want it more than I can tell.” I think I am still chasing that adventure with every photo shoot I have.

Photography as become not only a form of escapism from regular life, but my source of magic, and a conduit of personal healing. Being able to stick my head in the clouds now and then feels like breathing fresh air. It has had such a profound impact on my own mental well-being, but also helped me in practical ways to lift myself out of bad situations by being able to make money with my work. Imagination is wonderful but to be creative is to bring forth that imagination in a way that others can experience it. This is where the true magic happens, by sharing the worlds inside my head I can directly share the benefits I reap from creating it and hope that it ignites something in someone else to also follow their own path of creativity.

The world is no longer a dark place when you learn to shine. ~ @wild_empress

Snow princess photography by Vanessa Skotnitsky