MEET ASHLEY THALMAN

Ashley Thalman is an American portrait photographer and creative mentor collaborating 1:1 women, families, and creative entrepreneurs in the seeing and sharing of the self.

WORKING ARTIST STATEMENT

Working with themes of showing up, co-creating, and vulnerability that values the real over the contrived. I don’t subscribe to traditional narratives of beauty, nor do I uphold the conventions that dominate both mainstream and art world portrayals of bodies, life, and being.

My work is an experience, experiment and exchange. A new kind of image-making, self seeing, and storytelling, one that isn’t fixed, prescribed, or imposed but discovered in the ready-made moment.

I don’t claim that the way I see you is "true," nor do I insist on a particular vision. Devoted to the creative process, the experience I share with my clients transcends the final image. It’s not about one of us seeing the other; it’s about both of us being seen. I hold space for the whole of you—whatever parts, pieces, glimpses, or aspects decide to show up.

My approach is fluid—sometimes directing, sometimes sharing, listening and witnessing—but always showing up to experience the moment, push into the edges of expression, no matter how or what it may look like. My work offers mementos of selfhood and a creative experience equal in significance to the final images themselves.