kindred souls: a Passion Project, with Gloria Gilman

to, with, and about one of my dearest friends, Gloria Gilman ✨

this space CAPTURES and shares our story of meeting, through if you’re in a sweeping rush, I understand — feel free to merge on by and enjoy the colorful photos and photosets! if you’re keen, feel free to rest, and receive this transmission of utter love, joy, bliss, and divinity.

Gloria and I met while in university, in a lively and intimately small, intimidatingly intense persuasive speaking class — and as we sized each other up with our past experiences with friendships with other women at the time, we both felt too inward to say anything to each other until sometime in the first month of school.

Our story speaks to how nervousness, shyness, and intuition led to a friendship emboldened and encased in love, understanding, support, and expansion, connection through the heart space: and it speaks to how anyone, with a sincere and loving connection to another, can find creative ease and flow in the capturing of work done together. ❤️ Not only is Gloria an amazing friend, but these photos ALWAYS bring me back to the warmth, empowerment, and sisterly love of that time, something that was seeded in the chaotic space of a social castle: the classroom (I think she or I had approached each other in the bathroom after class 😂)

since then, I hold Gloria in my heart as a lifelong friend, a kindred spirit of sorts (per her ideation), and the meeting of our souls inspired my own heart to come out and embrace the world again when I least expected it, and needed most— with an expansive world of love that’s comforted and nurtured my mind. these photos were joyously captured for her graduation photos - a WELCOME treat to the normal waves of headshots and sterile captures, in such a stressful time (it was literally the week of all of our most intensive finals, around this time, these photos were a joy to capture and create)!!

from and with all of my being, it was such a joy to capture her. it really shows how first impressions can radiate and expand over time when we give relationships the space and nourishment to bloom, blossom, and fill into color from palettes of neutrals, greys, or black & whites — and how photos can have such an incredible gift and impact on how we see ourselves.

to staying wild, carefree, and connected 💫🌞✨

xx

Christina

professional notes: Gloria gave me the liberty to ideate, create, and guide her as I saw fit. this freedom of expression filled me with enormous ideas that bloomed naturally over the four weeks we’d casually expanded into to our appointment time! afterward, I carefully colorgraded in accordance with how I felt her aura and the enhancing beauty of Laguna and Southern California; it was natural to encapsulate these photos with how I felt Gloria’s unique essence and color. her aura is so present and pure ✨