The Cole Sisters: An Introduction
We’re here! The launching of this shared effort has been both spontaneous and a long time coming. The two of us have worked together on and off for assignments, but we’ve both been in different places with careers and life. Up until recently, it never really made practical sense to try and combine our business practices.
This particular season of the world in general is a strange time to try to start something new. Our communities are impacted by a devastating pandemic and a rumble of civil unrest. We continue to grapple with how to simultaneously do nothing to keep each other safe, but also definitely not do nothing to keep each other safe. This year of loss, growth, and pain has permeated so much of our daily existence.
The combined cocktail of isolation and job shifting has allowed us to reflect and regroup in hopes of blending our passions while complementing one another’s strengths. We are eager to create, but we are paving the path ahead gingerly and with intention. While we obviously provide a professional service, we want to find ways to support the community through collaboration, networking, and contribution. These conversations are still in the early stages, but we are optimistic that we can build something a little extra special into our business model.
ABOUT US
The gang, assembled.
You may be an old friend, a peer, or a neighbor, but there’s also a chance that you’re new here. In that case, we’d like to introduce ourselves more officially. We are Whitney and Casey Cole, sisters with a love for (and formal fine art training in) photography. We grew up about 45 minutes outside of Richmond, in rural Virginia. Our shift from upbringings immersed in nature and close-knit community to a densely and diversely populated city have certainly informed our personal lives, as well as our professional practices.
L-R: Angus, Whitney, and Lou.
Whitney is the older sister by five years, an emotions-driven introvert with a dry sense of humor. She experiments with antique film cameras and creating inky illustrations for fun. She shares home with two very differently sized dogs. Aesthetically, she’s drawn to soft imagery, florals, and romantic portraiture (think Impressionism and Julia Margaret Cameron).
Casey and Benny, outside, where they enjoy doing Casey and Benny things.
Casey, the youngest of the three Cole children, balances her energetic and assertive drive with a sweet warmth. An athlete since birth, she seeks out any activities to keep her moving. Her happy place is anywhere outdoors; she’s passionate about nature and conservation. She lives in a farmhouse with a graceful hound dog/master escape artist. In art, she loves classical rural landscapes and imagery of people interacting in those spaces – inspiration that she brings to her own compositions.
An image from Casey’s thesis work, Oh I Can See Her Now.
We have both independently been through the BFA program for Photography at Virginia Commonwealth University. Unsurprisingly, we focused on similar themes during that time: nature, family, the body. Whitney leaned a little more toward the supernatural and got a little spooky, while Casey focused more on the physical body and the spiritual connection we have when in nature. Those themes tend to trickle into our wedding work from time to time in the form of mysterious blurred motion shots or radiant wide compositions of couples in landscapes.
OUR PROCESS
This is cinemagraph. It can exist as a video or a GIF.
On the job, Casey is encouraging her subjects to strike a pose and feel confident in doing so. Whitney is happiest as a fly on the wall, quietly catching details and moments as they unfold. Casey is bubbling with imaginative direction, and Whitney is ensuring things are kept to the (aesthetically pleasing) itinerary. Casey is making sure to photograph your great aunt holding your baby nephew, and Whitney is recording a cinemagraph of some delicate motion. Our personalities ebb and flow, allowing for forgotten details, special people, and unexpected moments to be documented on the days most important to you. Our goal is to blend in to the goings on while existing as a support for you and your loved ones throughout our time working together. We must warn you that we will be dancing along to any wedding day music while this happens; it is obligatory.
Bailey, an honorary Cole Sister, most exquisite bookbinder, and main gal of Blue Tick Bindery, creates our fine art wedding books. This is not her hand.
We are both quite tactile in nature, which proves to be challenging in a digital medium. That’s why we will always encourage you to experience the photograph as an object through prints and books. We make all fine art prints straight from our home studio, and work with honorary Cole sister Bailey Hughes to create our hand bound, curated wedding books. Objects carry a weight of nostalgia and allow us to put love into something real, which we can guarantee is much more satisfying than a forgotten folder of downloaded image files.
Pictured: Love.
Aesthetics are important, but you and your relationships are what matter most to us during our time together. We work diligently for you to feel heard, informed, and supported, from inquiry to delivery, and we value the unique connection we get to make with each new client. Being chosen to photograph such an important event is a privilege and a joy for us. We hope you’ll give us that honor one day!
