A Little Bit About Me

My name is Dorothy Joy. We just moved back to my home island of Guåhan, all the way from a valley in central Vermont. You’ll see a lot of our old home life here, but I’m excited to get saltwater on my portfolio. I have three children, Valentina (10) and Atlas (9), Cloud (4), and I’m also a Nursing student, so there’s a lot of chaos you won’t see here!

I am a stay-at-home mother going to school with hopes of becoming a nurse and yoga teacher. I’m always busy, but have lots and lots of support too! When time is free, I enjoy learning languages, reading literature, practicing yoga, as well as playing around with film photography. I am passionate about healing and all things motherhood. This passion led me to doula services.

My Story

I was driven towards postpartum care by speaking with a Netherlands resident. The Dutch government provides paid maternity leave, paid paternity leave, and a nurse for 10 days who tends, not only to mother and infant, but to the home so that family could take part in assisting and resting with the newborn. It dawned on me that the United States is not as diligent to postpartum care as they are to prenatal, despite both needing great attention.

I want to be a part of this movement that allows mothers to slow down and take care. That lets families be a family before returning to their new routines. That understands the care a newborn and its family need in the early days after birth.

Photography came to me through a homemade pinhole camera. I took great delight in how a simple mechanism, given how long the film was exposed to light, could capture and produce a photo. Film photography captivated me deeply. I was allured by the mechanics of a film camera, the craft of manually composing a photo efficiently, and the gratifying click on the shutter of a SLR or rangefinder than one just doesn't get from a point and shoot or digital camera. Motherhood brought me to the realization that snapping photos left and right of fleeing children on film was just not financially feasible for us. Enter my digital camera; I am forever grateful for it, allowing me to do something I love, but more recklessly. I still shoot film for fun (and perhaps once I master the craft, I may offer it professionally), but my trusty Nikon is my sidekick on this pixelated adventure. I love capturing things raw and as they are, with little posing or direction, which is why lifestyle and birth are more my jam than all else. Allow me to capture you, as you.