About Lisa
photo by simon cordova
hello and welcome to my online home!
My vision and purpose can be summed up in three words:
travel, beauty, and connection.
I tell stories of portals and passengers on the journey toward recognizing the truth of who we are and why we are here. I believe that truth is found in the beautiful moments we connect with one another. That our meetings are the doorways to our freedom. I photograph and write about my encounters and I share them with you to, perhaps, inspire you to look for your next doorway to freedom.
the story of doorways traveler:
It was on a journey to Bali, Indonesia, in the manifestation of a dream to travel internationally with my family, that the idea of Doorways Traveler was born. Of all the unbelievably detailed and exquisite manifestations of creative juice on that island, it was the doors that called out to me the loudest. I wanted them. I wanted to walk through them, to photograph them, to touch them. I loved how so much care was taken in crafting an artful entrance, how crossing a threshold was made infinitely more special by these creations. I especially loved the old ones with the layers of peeling paint and the stories they told of years and years of people crossing through.
It was in Bali that I started to know myself as Doorways Traveler. I began to envision a life rich with wanderings and opportunities to connect. I took a long walk down the main street in Ubud and through the rice paddies, all alone, and tried on this identity (was it new? or had it always been?). I felt a calm and a peace. There was the complete absence of that knot in my belly that I became accustomed to in more than ten years spent pursuing a career as a midwife. It was easeful and right. It was me.
I began blogging in the year after traveling to Bali. Photography naturally followed. Visual details have always been a part of me, teasing and enticing in a way that only beholding the beautiful can exquisitely achieve. For much of my life, I thought it was normal to observe these things and to hold them inside, piled atop one another until I would shut down on occasion under the sheer abundance of it all. Once I found my way back to my camera (something I had studied in my early twenties) I realized that I had a practice that allowed me to reflect the things I see and experience; and to no longer hold them inside.
The camera is my medium, the connecter, and I am changed when it is around my neck. The images that I produce are my way of explaining the gaps between words. Each image I create affords me the opportunity to release and offer up a tangible expression of myself: the details, the light, the truth of who and what I am photographing. In the process of sharing the images I create, and the stories that stand beside them, I discover who I am, where I fit, and how we all fit together.
today:
I am thrilled to be doing what I love and being supported by my passion. I believe this is possible because I bring my whole self to my work. I offer my own story alongside my photographs and the stories of others that I am privileged to share. I am interested in opening doorways toward freedom, for myself as much as much as for those that I am lucky enough to consciously connect with.
Welcome to my online home. I invite you to take some time to settle in, look around, and get to know me. Say hello. Make contact. I’d love to work with you and witness your truth.
hire me:
Working with me is a collaboration toward opening doors for ourselves, our communities, our businesses, and for the creative process. We share an experience, merge our gifts, and create beauty together.
I am available for international and domestic humanitarian photography and writing assignments, commercial photography, and portrait sessions.
Visit my Galleries, the Doorways Project, and the Rates & Bookings pages for more information.
And, please, if you have an idea or project that you feel my skills and vision are suited for, speak up! I am wide open and would love to open doors together.
Say Hello
i’d love to hear from you! please get in contact via the form below or by email,
or simply follow the links featured to the right.
Joy
photo by denise andrade
my son and daughter, India, hot springs, foggy mornings, children singing, dahlias, yerba maté, incense, citrus & vetiver, 88% dark cacao, antique carved doors, airplane tickets, sunrise hikes, delicate pinot, gear & gadgets, moroccan tea glasses, running water, faded wood-blocked textiles, irreverence, divinity, ethiopian food, byzantine jewels, ocean hair, smart tv, red rocks, watermelon with mint, trampolines, peeling paint, tangerine salt scrub, words, cashmere, linen, spicy chai, pottery, temple bells, mud, sun flare, nasturtiums, indigo, hand-painted tiles, arches, birds, crumpets, eye-contact, muddy coffee, metallic leather shoes, brainy humor, sandy toes, guitar strumming, kirtan, the silent laugh, balinese day beds, holding hands, soup, sufi poetry, indonesian silk, mindless movies, ginger & persimmon, candle-lit lanterns, quaawali, campfires, disco funk & singer-songwriters, pine bark that smells like maple, sarcasm, bravery, a proper spa, old bookstores, white sheets, feather pillows, people who live the truth, yoga, bones, vision, love, light.
