Today we’d like to introduce you to Britt DuMonceaux.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
Photography started early for me – with high school classes and photography club! I started photographing weddings in college, did my first boudoir session about that same time and then really started to lean into boudoir about 10 years later. I think I connected with the idea of imagery as an empowerment experience more and more as I experienced the judgement, body changes, and isolation that come along with parenthood. Existing as a woman in our world is rough and connecting with yourself in a way that is forgiving, kind, and celebratory is a pretty radical act and a very powerful one.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Of course it hasn’t been a smooth road — the business of photography is by nature feast and famine, up and down, left and right! In Minnesota, we have an intense “on” season when the weather is nice and a rather long “off season” where it’s too cold for outdoor photos and a lot of people sort of hole up for the winter, so a photographer is always rotating through burnout and into “I have not clients, I’m a failure” and back again. A working artist has to have a tolerance for that emotional roller coaster, I think, in order to stay in the game and be successful.
And a lot of us are very sensitive — that’s kind of the stereotype for artists, right, but it’s pretty accurate for a lot of us. We have to learn to push through the times when you feel like you’re a disappointment and show up for your clients anyway. You have to tune out the feelings of failure when things are slow and you think your career is ending. You have to just keep showing up and that can be extra hard when your boss is you.
One strategy that continues to help me, when I’m feeling like an imposter or a disappointment, is to look over my client reviews and ask myself, “Do you think these people are stupid? They loved what you made for them and felt good about the money they spent and what they received in return.” And of course I would never say to any client, “you’re wrong” or “you just don’t get it” so that helps me wrap by brain around the fact that I’m not a disappointment. Helps me to show up for the next client and the next even when that self-doubt is creeping in.
I want to put it out there that this isn’t just a struggle for the newbie photographer either. Each time you raise your prices or your reputation improves, expectations are higher too, so you’re in a constant cycle of self-acceptance and self-worth. I’m always reminded of that quote about how you’ll always chase closing the gap between your ability and your taste.
So, if I were to wrap that all into a piece of advice, it would be, “ask for reviews.” You’ll want them for more than SEO and social proof 🙂
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
Render Boudoir is all about taking what’s wrong with our cultural experience, especially as women and gender non-conformers experience it, and turning it around for once – for our own healing, joy, and empowerment. Here’s what I mean by that…
What’s wrong with our society is that it tells us so clearly what we’re supposed to look like – thin, but not too thin; light-skinned, but not too light-skinned; tall, but not too tall; curvy, but not too curvy; young, but not too young; sexy, but not too sexy; strong, but not too strong; confident, but not too confident. You get it. Society also tells us that looking the right way is your key to being valued, respected, liked, wanted. We have psychological studies that show people ranked as more attractive are also estimated to be smarter, friendlier, more successful.
We spend a lifetime identifying how society does this and then trying to reject it to make the world better and kinder. One day, I hope we break those ties all together. I hope girls read something like this in a history book and they say, “what? weird! I don’t get it.”
But in the meantime, while we wait for the slow change of the world around us, we’re making a short cut for ourselves. Boudoir photography, for me, is about helping people view themselves as more beautiful than ever before — for the purpose of allowing them to unlock new feelings of power, value, and worthiness for themselves. It’s the ultimate “lemons into lemonade” sort of philosophy.
What’s different about Render Boudoir is that you’re going to see in my portfolio the intention to break with our stereotypes about ideal appearance. My images feature a wide range of body types, gender non-conformity, skin tone, age, and sensuality. My clients are not here to make themselves into something they’re not, they’re here to celebrate who they are and where they’re at in life. We’re making beautiful art out of your exquisite vessel, as it exists right now today.
I also hope that Render Boudoir stands out from other boudoir photographers in the emotional connection that comes through in the images. I really encourage calm and confidence to come through in body language and facial expression so that images are a celebration of your whole self. I’m making it a priority to help my clients feel comfortable and guided so that they can allow more soul and vulnerability to come through in their images.
What were you like growing up?
As a kid I was kind of a mixed bag, like I am now. On one hand, I was a real book worm, rule-follower, academic type — and on the other, I was pretty outdoorsy and independent. I got involved with horses when I was nine, so spent a lot of time in jeans and boots, covered in dirt, doing chores and getting a farmer tan. The word tom-boy would have applied back then for sure. I’m a big LGBTQ+ ally now and I think the roots of that are in that are my childhood — rejecting what a proper little girl was supposed to be and following what made me feel alive. That unconventional beginning helped mold me into a person who sees value and goodness and beauty where others don’t and that’s what I’m hoping to put back out into the world — helping people see themselves and others in a kind and beautifully human light.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.renderboudoir.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renderboudoir
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/renderboudoir
