A Passionate Combination: The Mother Series

Jill Thueson has two loves: Motherhood and Photography. She didn’t want to have to choose one over the other, but found by combining the two – her true passion came to life.

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For photographer Jill Thueson, the camera lens provides new perspective.

“It’s just always something I’ve liked to do,” she explains. “I’ve always seen things in a different way and the camera provides a different way for me to look at things.”

After graduating from Utah State University, with a degree in photography, Jill was dead set on going to New York and pursuing becoming a big-city fashion photographer. But that dream changed. Jill got married and, soon after, became a mother.

“I quickly decided New York is not the place I wanted to raise my child,” she admits.

While she loved using her photography skills to take pictures of her daughter, Jill recognized she had more to offer than just simple snapshots.

“I thought, I didn’t go to four years of school to sit around and take candids of my kid all day,” she said. I just decided I needed something to get excited about – that photography was something I needed to be doing more actively.”

She didn’t want to embark on a full-blown career that would take away from her chance to be a mother, so she decided to do something more simple.

“I wanted to capture something closer to my heart,” she said.

Jill started photographing moms – women just like her who, in Jill’s opinion, don’t get the recognition they deserve. She titled her project “The Mother Series.”

“Every mother parents differently, every mother does things differently, they have their own personalities,” Jill explains, “and I wanted to emphasize that in the pictures.”

For simple, easy-going mom Stacy Richards, that meant a simple white dress and basic background.

For mom Jordan Jensen, it meant spotlighting the physical contrast between her and daughter.

And for energetic, vibrant Chelsea Christensen, who is also a mother of twins – it meant plenty of bold fall colors that would reflect her outgoing personality.

Jill hopes when moms see her photos, they see more than just a picture.

“I hope mothers feel a little bit of empowerment,” she said. “Just to know being a mother really is beautiful.”

It’s a lesson that has been reaffirmed to her, through this project.

“As a mom you can get so bogged down in the day-to-day things – nap time, lunch time, you name it,” Jill laughs. “But if you have something that’s just yours, something you can do and gives you a little piece of fulfillment – I think that’s really important.”

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ABOUT JILLYN THUESON: Jill believes a photograph is more than just a picture. Her photography embraces a moment, a feeling, love. To Jill, photography is just that – love. It is seeing a new world.