“Anti Perfectionism” and Anti Instagram Culture Business Practices
It’s 2024 and I’m embracing imperfection more than ever.
We live in a world that constantly pushes us to curate our lives. To make them polished, pristine, and picture perfect for fleeting moments of validation. Over the past several years I realized something that has completely shifted the way I approach photography: Life isn’t perfect, and neither are the memories that mean the most to us. The most meaningful photos—the ones that make your heart ache in the best way…aren’t about perfection. They’re about truth.
When I think about the photographs we show off as significant memories in our lives they’re rarely the ones with perfect lighting or the carefully staged smiles.
Instead, they’re the moments of raw emotion. The candid laughter that crinkles the corners of your eyes, the embrace so tight you can feel its warmth through the image, or the messy, chaotic joy of living fully in the moment with your babies when they are little. These are the memories we cling to when everything else fades.
One day, photographs may be all we have left of the moments and people who shape our lives. When that day comes, it won’t matter if a photo was flawlessly lit. What will matter is whether it holds a piece of your heart—a reminder of who you were and the love you shared. I want my photographs to feel like a letter to your future self, whispering, “Remember this. Remember how it felt to be here, right in this moment.”
I’ve moved away from trying to create the kind of images that fit the aesthetic mold of “Instagram perfection.” I’ve come to see that life’s beauty isn’t in its most curated moments; it’s in the messy, unpredictable, and unfiltered reality. As a photographer, my heart beats for capturing the unvarnished truth and daily life as it really is.
Why the Shift?
The answer is simple: connection. Perfectly polished photos might earn a few likes, but they don’t stir the soul. They don’t take you back to the smell of the earth after a rainstorm or the sound of your kids feet pitter patter across the floor or the sound of making them laugh so hard they snort. They don’t remind you of the way your grandma’s hands felt in yours during a quiet moment of togetherness on your wedding day. The perfect photo often comes at the expense of authenticity. It strips away the quirks and flaws that make a moment genuinely yours. But imperfection? Imperfection is real, and it’s human. When I hand my clients a gallery full of pages from their lives, I know I’m giving them memories, heirlooms to pass on, not just images.
The Emotional Weight of Memories
Image taken by The Daydreamer Diaries for Jess Rene Photos
One day, these photographs may be all we have left of a loved one. When we look back, we won’t remember whether the photo was perfectly lit or if everyone’s hair was in place and smiles planted perfectly across the faces of those in the photo. We’ll remember the way they made us feel, the love they radiated, and the life they lived. The life we live. By rejecting perfectionism, I’m reclaiming the purpose of my art: to document life as it is, not as it’s dressed up to be. Life is beautifully imperfect, and that’s where its magic lies.
My Promise
My promise to each of you is this… I will be there to tell your stories as they are—full of life and energy. I will preserve the laugh lines, the crooked smiles, and the perfectly imperfect essence of your life and how you spent your days. I will highlight the beauty that already exists within your lives, without forcing it to conform to an idea of perfection. Because one day, when these photos are all that’s left, they’ll remind you not just of how you looked, but of how deeply you loved and lived. As a professional, I am trained to document these moments in their best light and fashion, but that doesn’t require curating them into something they’re not.
To more celebrating the messy, the raw, and the real.
Because in the end, those are the memories that truly matter.
