It is a rare day that I photograph newborns and infants, not because I do not like the images that can be created but because it was never an area of photography I gravitated too. Although, like many photographers I have done it in the past for the experience… Thank goodness for nieces!

New babies are celebrated and they bring great joy but sometimes sorrow can follow when the arrival of a new born comes after the loss of other beloved family members. I was reminded of this when those in my own life geared up to welcome a new life into the world and said goodbye to others equally cherished to them.

It is not something I am unfamiliar with even within my own family when my niece came into the world there was someone she will never meet who wasn’t there. That loss was felt even has we celebrated a new member of the family and it was something as a photographer I wanted to honor.

All photographers do what they can to honor requests of families and making images that find ways to bridge that gap between loss and rebirth.

See the image below that I made when my niece was born, made in honor of the great-grandmother she would never know who is missed and cherished and wanted to be apart of welcoming a new one into the family.