HERE IS THE SHORT AND THE LONG OF HOW I WENT FROM WRITER TO ARTIST TO PHOTOGRAPHER AND ENDED UP A LIFELONG STORYTELLER.

ARTIST IN RESIDENCE

THE
SHORT...

Growing up as an only child, I quickly learned how to entertain myself with stories I'd built with my wild imagination. As I got older I found writing and theater and threw myself into this colorful world of storytelling.

However, towards the end of my college career I found photography while my husband was deployed as a way to document all that was happening at home. But what started out as a way to not loose moments of my own family, quickly grew into a business and life of traveling across the country and the world. Telling the true stories of people, their love and family and rawest moments.

And that's the short of how I got here...but there's so much more to it so let me share with you my heart if you please...

After swearing off journalism after spending a summer working for a local paper, I started deep diving into art. It was here while in college gaining my BFA where I found sculpture and installation...a whole new way to immerse my viewer into a narrative and I was hooked.

let's connect sweet friend

THE
LONG...

I grew up in Southern Idaho as an only child to an immigrant mom and a Native American dad. My childhood home sat on half an acre in the middle of town, not so uncommon in the 90s, which was an infinite playground of possibilities. Being homeschooled with no siblings lent to one thing; a wild and vivid imagination. One day I was Jane from Tarzan running around buck f*cking naked in the backyard with a broken-off willow branch. And the next day, I was back in the ice age with only pancakes for food. I was telling stories and playing with these characters I created. And it was magical.

When I was about 7, I was gifted two things that would ultimately change the course of my life. An old Polaroid that my dad hadn't needed at work any longer and a simple black point-and-shoot 35mm camera from my Opa while visiting my German grandparents. Once again, this was the 90s, so taking selfies and photos for content was not a thing. Photos were much more personal, as we took pictures for ourselves and to share with friends and family. To document our stories.

As someone who always had a book and a sketch pad with them, stories were not only my currency but my love language.

Going through public high school, I had grand ideas of working for The New York Times because I believed I would be documenting, camera and pen in hand, endless stories. But after spending a summer working at a local paper on the local news beat, I quickly learned that this was not the path for me.

And after a two-year stint in an abusive relationship that had derailed me from going to college right away, I found myself attending art school getting a BFA with a minor in creative writing. And it was here I found sculpture and installation. This magical form of storytelling that allowed me to immerse my viewer into all these narratives I had inside my head.

During my time in college is where this blend of writing, art and photography started to take place. There was this magnetic connection among these three mediums for me that I was so inherently drawn to.

And if you read the short, you will know it was about this time I had deep dove into photography while my husband was deployed so I could document our families memories.

But after sharing the photos on Facebook and Instagram that I was taking of my own family, I started to get DM's asking if I would take their family or graduation photos. And that is how Heather Woolery Photography LLC began.

Its safe to say this small business of mine has grown, and I have learned so much since "opening my doors" in 2014. I have traveled all over the northwest and the world, attended workshops, and taken online classes. I have had the honor to document every kind of wedding and elopement imaginable (well, besides an Indian wedding which is still a dream of mine). But through all of this, I have accomplished something that makes me so emotional every time I talk about it.

I have been honored to document hundreds of peoples stories. I have been given this raw chance to see people for who they are at their very core, make art and at the end of it all, tell their stories. And it will forever be one of my truest accomplishments.