Hello, ciao, coucou.
greetings, friend! i’m danielle, a portrait photographer working between philadelphia, pa and florence, italy. (more on that below, if you’re curious.)
i’d describe my style as “unrehearsed romance”: candid yet polished, intimate and a little nostalgic, alive to what unfolds in the moment rather than hell-bent on THE TOO-POSED AND TOO-PERFECT.
VISUALLY, i’m drawn to the depth, texture, and color of film, and seek to infuse this even into my digital work. the best of both worlds.
i love that i get to be a part of YOUR most important mEMORIES: an engagement, a family TRIP, a new baby, a wedding celebration… Or JUST THE MEMORY OF what it was like to be that age, at that time, in that place, WITH THOSE PEOPLE.
what matters to you, matters to me — and I’d be honored to document it FOR you.
A BIT OF BACKGROUND…
when i was 16, my parents gifted me a camera, and a fever ensued. i am still apologizing to my friends for the many “conceptual” photoshoots I made them model for. (sorry, esha.)
in the spring of my senior year, i chickened out of art school despite having been offered partial scholarships to parsons and pratt institute. this was me being ‘practical’.
photography became secondary. tertiary, even. but your teenage passions have a way of catching up with you. so a couple of years ago, i picked up a camera again.
today, i’m back at it — professionally! — though i continue my work as a brand copywriter, too. (were you looking for that site? it’s www.daniellecourtenay.com.) We contain multitudes.
where are you from, and how did you end up living between countries?
i often joke that I’m “from nowhere” - and it does feel like that, sometimes! I AM a uk-born, korean-american who was raised in singapore. After a decade in paris, france i eventually became a french citizen, too.
a few years ago, i fell in love with a florentine who just happens to live in the u.s.… BUT has four months of time off a year. (college professors, man). So, we go back and forth!
wheN ARE YOU IN ITALY, AND WHEN ARE YOU IN PHILADELPHIA?
my travel dates are highly flexible — but generally, YOU’LL Find me in the u.s. from mid-january through MID-may, and mid-august through MID-december.
In other words, I spend all of summer (may - august) in florence, italy, and aNOTHER month around the christmas holidays. lucky me!
MA PARLI ITALIANO?
SI! gli italiani ridono quando sentono come parlo: un incrocio curioso DI un accento vagamente straniero, mescolato alla ‘c’ aspirata dei toscani. E ICCHè CI DEVO FAre?
ET LE FRANçAIS ?
Tout À fait ! Si vous cherchez unE photographe francophone à florence ou en toscane, ça me ferait plaisir de vous faire un shooting avec mon p’tit accent on-sait-pas-trop-d’où.