Studio
About
Fifteen years doing makeup. Ten of them, increasingly, holding the camera too. The two jobs turned out to be one job.
I started on the other side of the mirror.
I trained in makeup in 2011 and spent a decade on other people's sets — weddings, catalogue days, three seasons of a television series where I learned more about lighting than about foundation.
Standing next to photographers all day teaches you what a face does under a lens, and how much of a good portrait is decided before the shutter. It also teaches you what a bad session feels like from the subject's side: rushed, silent, faintly humiliating. I took the camera up partly to do that differently.
The studio opened in Mile End in 2019. It is a working room, not a showroom: north windows, a kettle, a rail of robes, and a door that locks. Everything about the way sessions run comes from the same idea — that people photograph well once they stop bracing.
I work in French and English, and I am happiest on the long bookings where there is time for the first hour to be wasted.
How I work
- Sessions are longer than they need to be, on purpose
- Every pose is directed — you are never left to invent something
- You see the frames before you leave, and you decide what survives
- Retouching removes what is temporary, not what is you
- Nothing is published without a separate written release
- Quotes are fixed in advance; nothing is added afterwards
The studio
Third floor of a converted textile building near Saint-Viateur. Fourteen-foot ceilings, north light most of the day, and a lift that works about eighty percent of the time.
There is a private changing area, a makeup station with proper daylight bulbs, and space for one person you want to bring along. The building is quiet on weekends, which is when most boudoir sessions are booked.
Street parking on Saint-Viateur, and Laurier metro is eight minutes on foot. Full directions go out with every confirmation.
Come see it
Studio visits before booking are welcome, and often the thing that settles it.