Broadly describing her work as documentarian, Lou is a working photographer using both traditional film and modern digital cameras.
She started her artistic journey as a young child in Benson MN where her parents encouraged her anything that caught her eye. After taking all the available art classes in high school and starting at Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM) as a film major, she would say that her photographic journey started with a love and appreciation for the cinematography of film; as well as just taking random candids of his friends at college, taking a couple classes in the photojournalism department solidifying a solid documentary background.
Her first paid work was that of shooting the first 1711 Music Festival in May of 2015, closely followed up by being the Homecoming Photographer at MSUM for the 2015/2016 school year where she continued to develop her eye as a candid documentarian of the world around her.
Since then she has expanded into weddings and portraiture via some senior pictures, headshots, as well as behind-the-scenes shots for a short film, and various celebrations of identity and culture.
Lou’s true love in photography has developed (pun intended) into an appreciation and utilization of traditional film cameras and black and white film which they develop at home. She enjoys using various cameras from little 35mm half frame cameras from the 60s all the way up to a wooden 4x5 large format camera from the 40s (click here to learn more). She enjoys playing around with new cameras and formats but always comes back to a couple favorites.
Lou currently resides in Minneapolis, Minnesota and she is most often seen taking street portraits or documenting the rehearsals and performances of the Twin Cities Gay Men’s Chorus and capturing other queer focused events in the Metro Area as well as working at the Linhoff Photo store in St. Louis Park where she works in customer service.