Amy McMullen - storywork

10/05/2023

lookin back on the sweetest senior sessions, and loving the fresh ones coming through.
this sugar first graced my lens when she was 3ish.
time is wild. ✨

07/04/2023

it's HOT here in oregon and it got me thinkin' back on one of my favorite sessions in the last year, in the late fall, in beautiful and very cold montana.
his mama became my most precious bestie when she was the age he is now, and the first photos i made of him he was three weeks old. and now. and how!
this wonderful human is as much a delight inside and in-person, as those dimples would have you think, and i'm proud as peaches of who he is and where he's goin'.
congrats, Wyatt, and so many amazing kids that made it through the wildest of times.

03/31/2023

my most darling niece ronan. always her very own clever and whimsical and hilarious self. always paying attention, taking things in, staying curious. loving on the world and the smallest creatures in it. reasons to hope, folks.

03/29/2023

one day they're four, swinging their legs over lunch after pre-k, discussing the existence of nothingness and where babies actually come from,
then they're finding their own way and finding new answers.
it's the sweetest, to get to be the one to capture who they are when on their way.

03/29/2023

sometimes i have quite mixed feelings about the internet and social (is it, though?) media and want to throw my phone in the river and sometimes i’m reminded that it can connect us and result in real togetherness, which is what i’m in it for. after their mama started following my work a dozen years ago, i finally got to soak up the real life sparkle of these kids i’ve watched grow up on a grid; to hear their laughs and witness their delight in each other, their own confidence and unique, endearing spirits.
maybe sometimes i forget how much i love this work.
thankful for spirited reminders.

02/10/2023

i was telling our therapist how yucky it felt to try to talk about my work when there were so many atrocities- thousands dead in the earthquakes, ongoing war, constant school shootings, systemic racism, climate collapse - that it never felt appropriate to share what i’ve been learning or offering or to take up much space when there’s such heaviness. she let me go on and on and then and when i had tired she said, “when i hear you list off all these true ugly things, all i can think is what better time for self-actualizing, for being seen and in community, no? (she’s so rad that she knows my website well and refers clients to it). if you ask me your work is quite timely!” and that thought felt much better. after sitting with it a minute, i said, ‘i guess it’s not like i’m selling blood diamonds or anything”, and she cackled out loud and THAT made me feel even better.

maybe we just keep being better and doing better and lifting each other - so that if you get a chance to make someone laugh, (especially your therapist) or make someone feel loved (especially the loneliest of us), best take it. and if you get a chance to share joy, as mary oliver says, it’s not meant to be a crumb.

02/03/2023

admittedly, most my photo work from recent years has been archived without sharing much, as the world at large shifted pretty drastically as did my own life and work and it all felt like too much at once, then. now it doesn't, and feels more like time to dig in a bit, to the work ahead and behind.
time's pretty watery at this point anyway.

case in point: darling korah and joe, korah who i've known since girlhood with her heart mate on a flower farm my friend christine has created from dust and grit on the island I lived on and loved for so long. korah and joe who will have their own lives and kids and stories and i was lucky to be there for a quick bit of it.

pretty lucky to witness all this gorgeous humanity

01/11/2023

feels like homecoming, to have a border collie at my ankles along this same channel, all these years now, but with tilda at the lead.
how dog-love is a time capsule.
how mid-life is just all your selves converging.

12/01/2022

the kids are alright. 💛

10/05/2022

i'll shoot senior sessions forever, just to get to steep in that certain blend of newly-minted magic only young adults can give.

there's still room for a couple more spots before closing books in mid-november and yes, i travel! if your kid isn't local but has 2 friends join in, we can make it happen. dm for deets and xoxox.

10/05/2022

you might've noticed we pulled a little switcheroo over here, as i'm sorting out the marriage of my work as photographer and facilitator— more closely linked all these years than i realized.
this community page will become more active, and be still home to storytelling in images, as well as story-sussing as we human together, finding our way. thank you for your patience and for being here, still.
we belong to each other and are better for it.

* made ya thirty seconds of jellyfish to breathe to… may they remind us to practice letting go, to let life lead the way a bit. big love.

10/01/2022

we ended up taking aidan's senior pics quite late, for various reasons, and while color is usually my jam, his images really asked to be mostly black and white; maybe for the simplicity, the timelessness. then we found this old fav of him, from before times and in my film days, and there was his steady gaze and knowing way, and it made sense. and another swift kick to the heart.
and to any of you preparing to, or actively releasing these humans we've spent a lifetime watching over, out into the world, where you can't any more, i send you deepest solidarity and love. what a time. what a trip. bless your hearts, straight up.

08/11/2022

it feels right to break my instavoidance with (eventually) forty-four favorite moments with the unicorn that is my lifewyfe, , as she starts her forty fourth year here, leaving goddang trails of stardust in her wake (and if you know her, you know that’s barely dramatic).
here is a girl that will light up your whole life.
here is friendship; a love story. a lifeline.
happy birthday, kid. i love your head off.

04/19/2022

launching a thing is like birthing something, in that after all the dreaming up and envisioning, the apprehension and unknown, after bearing down and laboring, you wonder at your heart’s capacity and if there’s room in it for more, and then they come; these humans you’d only seen in dream state or high hopes. they’ve braved their own resistance and crossed their own thresholds and show up fully humaning and with tender vulnerability. their willingness to be seen and known, their stories and discoveries, their palpable, shiny new love for themselves and each other blow your own doubt and stories to dust. this is not frivolous work. this is heart work and world work and this s**t reverberates. the grace weaves a thread between us. the belonging bolsters us. the laughter carves new grooves. the knowing starts rooting us for the next big wind and we can be buoys when waves come too tall. it’s the story of how, just as our liberation is tied to each other, so is our healing. that we can lift up and listen to and lean into each other. that our softness is not weakness and our empathy grows our grit. that our stories matter.
this was the latest navigator retreat and these are the beauties that peopled it and this is how we find our way. ✨✨✨
{navigatorpdx.com}

03/15/2022

come adventure with us! maybe do something that scares you. remember it’s the edge of the thing where the growing gets good. next navigator is in just a few weeks (staring april 7) and sure, it feels weird to talk about it when the world keeps flaming and also we think maybe it’s just in time. what with what we know about shoring up and our linked liberation.
there are a couple beds left. we’d love to see your face. {navigatorpdx.com} 😘

navigator is a community for women, finding their way; writers, activists, artists, healers, folks interested in unlearning faulty stories and delving into our truths, even the hard ones, in hopes of healing the generations behind and before us, through shadow and thought work, meditation, connectio...

12/22/2021

hiiii, it's been a minute here. truth be told, i got really grumpasaurus about the algorithms in these biz pages and basically gave up on it. but also, i've been creating new work, in a new way, and wanted to share with you a glimpse of the "navigator" retreats i started in october. the next one is in january and there's still a couple spots, it's covid conscious to keep us all safe, and likely a very loving thing to do for yourself to start out the new year. come along!

https://vimeo.com/653281661

a retreat for folks finding their way. song : water me down by vagabon