oh hey 

If you haven’t guessed by now, my name is Bridget Shaw and I am a photographer in Springfield, Illinois. I grew up with several artists in the family and found a camera in my hands pretty early in life, around age 7, that was when I became aware of what photography was. Either due to the Ansel Adams prints my dad had hanging around the house, or to the fact that my babysitter was a photographer and I thought she was pretty cool, from an early age the artform had my interest and my heart.

I studied film photography for the first time at Southeast High School my sophomore year where we had a tiny darkroom. That place was my little sanctuary and it was where I realized that photography was something I wanted to do forever.

I love photography because it feels like a superpower. It feels like having a secret type of vision, where I can see things others can’t and then make it a photo. I love freezing time. I love finding the beauty in the mundane. I love showing people how hot they look on the back of my camera and then hearing their gasps of shock and awe when they see how hot they are.

I’ve loved documenting my town over the years, and everywhere I travel too. I love meeting people, hearing their stories, and making something cool and artistic with them while having a positive impact, hopefully. I love to see how much confidence a good portrait can give someone, and above all else, I love photography because it has the power to capture truth, create a fantasy, and bring people together over a common goal of creating and capturing concepts or moments in time.

My main goal with photography is to make art, not a profit. I do charge for my talents as any self respecting creative should, but I would do it for free if this damn gear wasn’t so pricey 🖤