We can go through our entire lives just getting through it. Routines, small stresses, schedules, and busyness often compile and quickly make us blind to the simplicity and beauty of the mundane. The feeling of a warm breeze hitting your face on a summer evening, the way your toddler grips your hand while eating breakfast, how your dad reads the same newspaper every morning in the same worn-out chair in the living room, your grandma’s daily walk and how the sunshine illuminates her weathered skin and the decades of stories it holds. Life passes by, and it does so in the blink of an eye. You spend years with people, and then suddenly you spend years remembering them. Photojournalism is our only source of physical image memory. It has always, and will always be my life’s work to commemorate this life for you all, the good and the hard.
I'm Anya, a documentary lifestyle photographer based in Northern California with over a decade of experience documenting stories. I was born and raised in Oakland, spent 7 years in coastal San Luis Obispo, and have since moved and found a love for Sacramento, California. I am a recent kidney transplant recipient, thanks to a lifelong friend's unimaginable gift of organ donation. I consider myself an advocate of sorts for those in a similar position, and I strive to spread the importance in the value of life.
Due to my keen craving to capture who you are, and pure, simple, human aesthetic and interactions, documentary portraiture has always been my niche. There is something really special about showing real life through a lens, freezing a perfect, or a not-so perfect moment in time, to just keep it all uncomplicated. Outside of work, you can find me exploring with my partner and dogs, catching up with close friends over a good cup of coffee or meal, creating a new recipe in the kitchen, or venturing to a random town with a camera in hand.
Email me any inquiries or if you would just like to chat! Photography, to me, is all about relationships and soaking up every bit of life that we get. I look forward to meeting you!
photo by Eden Jones
