what this is
Sessions happen at your house, in your own light, on your hours. Nothing is styled that wasn't already there - no rented gowns, no props, no field at golden hour.
I work slowly and I photograph close. Skin stays skin: retouching removes distractions, never evidence.
I do not photograph births. Postpartum work starts at six weeks, once the room has settled.
sessions
No print minimums. No unlocking images. No per-photo retouch charges. A linen album (40 spreads), an extra visit, and travel beyond 20 miles of Santa Monica can be added to any session. Ask for the price list and I'll send it with the reply.
skin to skin
6weeks
The room is small and the days have no edges. We stay in bed, in the chair, wherever the feeding happens.
12weeks
You are recognizable to yourself again, some hours. The baby has weight now. So do you.
22weeks
Laundry, floor, a body that moves without thinking about it. The ordinary is the point.
Two hours per visit. I bring a camera and nothing else. You don't clean.
the work
who I am
The earlier work lives at xenialeo.com.
In February 2026 I had my first baby. It changed what I'm able to see.
Before, I knew this work mattered. I didn't know how much until I was inside it - and being inside it is exactly the problem. You are too close, too tired, too occupied with keeping someone alive to notice what the room looks like. Nobody in those weeks can see them clearly. That's the whole reason someone else should be there, holding the long view while you get through the day.
The last months of pregnancy deserve the same attention for the opposite reason. The body is doing something enormous and entirely visible, and it only stays that way for a few weeks.
So I wrote about it first. Skin to Skin was a newsletter before it was anything else - the fourth trimester, told honestly, nothing sold, still going.
The sessions came out of the writing. The same weeks, photographed instead of described: three visits, at six, twelve and twenty-two weeks, when nobody else is coming.
questions
Most people come between 30 and 36 weeks. Later is not too late - the last two weeks is often the strongest work and almost nobody books it.
No. Skin to Skin starts at six weeks, once the room has settled and you have some sense of what's happening.
No props, no beanbags, no wraps. If that's the picture you want, I'm the wrong photographer and I'll point you to someone good.
Your house, in your own light. If your place is dark or small or mid-renovation, I have a plain studio wall - but I'd try your house first. Small dark rooms photograph better than people expect.
No. I'm asking for the actual room. The bed can be unmade, there can be a laundry pile. That's frequently the photograph.
Your own clothes - a slip, a shirt of your partner's, a knit, underwear, nothing. I don't provide gowns; rented ones tend to make everybody's photos look the same. Lay out a few options and we'll choose in the room.
I don't include it. If it makes you feel more like yourself, book it and I'll work around the timing. Most people don't.
Partner, older children, your mother, the dog. Anyone in the room is fair game or entirely off-camera - your call, revisable at any point.
Then that's what the visit is. I don't need a calm baby to make good pictures, and you don't need to apologize to me.
Yes, however you feed. Breast, bottle, pumping, tube - all the same subject.
As much or as little as you want, decided in the room and revisable afterwards, including once you've seen the images. Plenty of sessions have none.
This is the most common thing people write to me. Almost nobody feels ready at six weeks. The photographs aren't a verdict on how you look - they're a record of a stretch of your life you won't remember clearly. If you'd rather skip the 6-week visit and start at 12, we can.
They stay. Retouching removes distractions, not evidence. If there's something specific you want taken out, ask and I usually will.
45-55 from a single visit, 130-150 across a full Skin to Skin set. Three weeks from each visit - Skin to Skin is delivered as we go, not held to the end.
No. Finished images only, full resolution, with a personal print release so you can print anywhere.
Write to me and I'll send the price list - the three sessions, the add-ons, all of it on one page. There are no print minimums, no unlocking images and no per-photo fees, and nothing gets added later: the price you are quoted is the price.
25% holds the date, refundable up to 14 days before the first visit and transferable indefinitely after that. Skin to Skin is normally split across the three visits.
Yes. Skin to Skin and Full Term can be split into contributions and put on a registry. Write to me and I'll set it up.
We move. Early babies are the norm, not an emergency for the schedule. Sickness, a bad week, a baby who won't settle - no fee, no limit.
Everything is refunded in full, immediately, without a conversation you have to have. If you want the photographs that already exist, they're yours and I'll finish them properly. If you never want to hear from me again, you won't.
We wait. There's no deadline and no visit you can lose. I'm not there to document a good day - if you'd rather not be photographed on a given visit, we can photograph the baby, the room, your hands, or sit down and reschedule.
Only with your permission, asked separately and after you've seen the images. No is a complete answer and changes nothing. Never in advertising, never sold. You can change your mind later and I'll take them down.
inquire