Hi, I’m Lindsey
And that’s me in my natural habitat:
Face obscured by the camera, stooping to get the shot,
Knees covered in dirt.
Fun Fact: My first real ambition was to be a writer.
I’ve spent the majority of my life with a ravenous appetite for art, media and story-telling. I’ve held so many creative interests and hobbies over the years that whenever it came to the question of “what I wanted to be” the answer was often difficult and ever-changing. How could I possibly choose just one thing? I think I eventually landed on writing because I realized that my ultimate love was for a good story. Writing seemed like the best way to create one myself. Yet despite my love for it, something still wasn’t clicking. I couldn’t finish anything. I was too picky. I got bored. However, the desire to tell a story remained very much alive. But if I couldn’t write it down, then how?
Somehow, throughout all of the pains trying to decide on a creative path forward, photography was always there in the background. It flew under the radar, treated as a compulsory, utilitarian task - one that came secondary to other artistic pursuits. In fact, taking a photo never felt like art at all, but a way to satisfy a need to catalogue my experiences. It wasn’t until I found myself sitting in my first photography class that I realized how much I had undervalued it as an art form.
Suddenly, everything fell into place and I could finally reconcile the need to create art and tell a story all in one neat, beautiful package.
A little more about me:
Currently, I live in a small rural town in sound-east Virginia with my husband and a small gaggle of pets. Like a lot of adults my age, I can drink my weight in coffee (iced, please) and I spend a little too much of my free-time binge watching Netflix and wondering why I can’t get my laundry done. As mentioned above, I have an obsession with books and I’m always looking for the next big emotional gut-punch story. (Sad endings? Yes, thank you.) I nerd out over good character development and I will always have a weakness for anti-heroes. Otherwise, I love listening to podcasts and music, going outside, learning and traveling. Over the years, I’ve learned how to play the piano, flute and ukulele… but I probably won’t play anything for you, even if you ask nicely.
Behind the Camera since 2009
My photography journey began modestly and for a while, I was a bit directionless in where I wanted this career to go. Right out of high school, I began working for free or for trade to build a creative portfolio with local models, musicians and artists. I thought fashion photography might be my calling before I realized that being a fashion photographer also meant stepping into the cutthroat fashion industry. And for a shy, rural Virginia local barely out of her teens with no connections and minimal experience, there was nothing more terrifying.
So, I changed course and began exploring more traditional lines of photography work. For six years, I worked for a corporate retail portrait chain where I learned the ins and outs of photographing families and children of all ages and backgrounds. It certainly helped in sparking a new love of family photography, but yet again something still wasn’t clicking. I got bored of doing the same things every day (and wow nothing kills creativity quite like a corporate retail enterprise.) So, I dipped out in 2015 to pursue my own business and start making real connections in the local photography scene. Two years later, Windett Photography was born.
Between then and now, I slowly began to let go of all of the rules and traditions of portrait work. In the most beautiful full-circle moment, I returned to my roots: using photography as a way to catalogue experiences. Only, this time I wasn’t just recording my own experiences and it wasn’t being treated as such a casual task. Art and love had woven its way into every photo. There was purpose and connection in a way that never existed before. So strange that the answer had been there the whole time.
Even though it’s been a long and meandering journey only to arrive right back where I started, I wouldn’t trade it for anything else. Sometimes I think it was the best possible outcome, to return with fresh eyes and an open heart.
