(Right photo by: Catherine Just)
Danielle and I met in the midst of the Petaluma foothills on a sunny California day. Her camera was in tow as well as several copies of Amulet Magazine.
Our first meeting was brief, it wasn’t until a few days later when she photographed the stunning Sage Goddess Athena that I understood how profound and deeply intuitive she is. Danielle and I since then have been able to share conversations as well as work together. She is a truth teller. A rhythm maker. A story teller.
You get what you see. And I see a whole lot of love and drive.
Danielle Cohen: I am a photographer of intimacy, moments in between and full out embodied power. I work with creative mavens, lovers and beautiful humans ready and wanting to be seen or to see themselves more fully. I love my big camera, my iphone camera and my Polaroid cameras. I am also an intuitive, strategic guide and mentor and co-founder of Amulet. I’m a lifelong learner, devoted to practice, to devotion itself and to the 4 beautiful souls that chose me as their mama.
The beauty I see in the world and people around me, soothes and inspires me, reflecting it back out for all to see, fills me with purpose and pleasure. It is my deep desire for each one of us to know our full worth and to be able to meet our own gaze with pure love and adoration. From this place of beauty, love, peace and full awareness of our worth, I believe the most profound healing and change is possible.
Let’s start with the most fundamental question: why do you create?
You know for so long I would’ve denied my creative expressions. Made them so small you’d barely see them with a magnifying glass. But the truth is I’ve always created, I think we all do. For some it’s spreadsheets or smiles or freshly mowed grass and for others it’s pictures or paintings or word stories or babies or incredible birth experiences, or social media posts or speeches that change the world, but no matter what we’re all creating all the time even if it’s just the creation of the next moment.
What inspires you to create this work?
As a photographer, person who writes stuff and mentor, woman and mama all of my work is anchored by one question:
What is it you really want?
It’s the thing I want to know most from my clients and the question that I keep alive for myself always. I truly believe our deepest desires are divine and healing and incredibly powerful. I think it’s these deep inclinations, cravings and loves that will lead us to our most fully expressed lives and will fuel our devotion.
I think that most people know, intellectually, that “going after what you want” is a good idea. We “know” this. But “knowing” isn’t always the same as “believing,” “owning” or “doing.” You might know, for example, that treating yourself to a massage or carving out sacred space and time for yourself and your pursuits or taking time to rest and replenish your spirit is a smart idea. But when it comes right down to it, those types of things — generous, self {and other} loving things — are too often the first things to get deleted from our calendars. We tell ourselves things like, “I don’t have time” or “I don’t really deserve this” or “I can’t afford this” or “I need to finish XYZ before I am allowed to have ABC.” I truly believe and really intend for my work to serve as reminders that, You really do deserve to be happy and feel satisfied. It’s OK and safe and good to take exquisite care of yourself.
You are precious. You are worth it. You are allowed to do whatever you need to do… to feel fully alive.
Your work with woman and lovers is — dare I say it? Fucking amazing! — I have watched the evolution of your work for a year and a half now and I love what you offer to this world!
You’re so so kind. My work is interesting in that I truly don’t feel like I’m doing anything other than reflecting back the incredible humans that I’m SO lucky to work with. I’d say my work is 90% my clients and 10% me {it’s an important 10% though lol}!
Do you have a sacred space? What does sacred mean to you?
I have so many sacred spaces. I have to. And more than anything I strive to treat my body/temple as a sacred space every single moment. It’s been a long and often challenging lesson but it feels so good to be grounded in a practice of that kind of self love. I do believe most anything and anywhere can become “sacred” if you choose to make it so.
My bed is a sacred space. The ocean, near my home, is a sacred space. When I pick up my camera to do a portrait session with a client, that is a sacred moment as well.
I believe you can elevate most anything, and any place, into something that feels “sacred.” All you have to do is decide to really BE there.
Full bloom. Truly present. Engaged and excited. Alive.
What’s more sacred than that?
Rituals can be a multitude of things. What are a few of your tried and true rituals?
In a word, love is my ritual. Creating love, making love, being in love, reflecting love out to the world and being surrounded by people and things I love.
Sometimes this looks like self massage {I’m obsessed with this adore pomegranate breast oil, which is a delicious scented oil that you can rub on your chest. It has cancer-fighting antioxidants and it smells amazing}.
Sometimes this looks like full on ritual with sage, intentions, prayer, singing bowls, crystal infused water and dancing under the moonlight with sisters.
Most days it looks like morning meditation {oftentimes with my 5 year old girl right beside me}. And almost always it looks imperfect!
What does your inner rhythm look like? Feel like? Do you have things you do that help support this rhythm? How you find your rhythm?
Oooooh, my inner rhythm looks like liquid, luminous gold and fire and water and air and earth in total harmony. It might sound like moonlight sonata. Other days it feels like an ice storm or hurricane or walking through a wildfire and sounds more like a song by Lamb of God LOL! Lots of days it’s a mix of all of the above.
I do lots of pausing, lots of moments to recalibrate, reground and breathe.
In our home I strive to lighten our material load and lesson the visual and tactical clutter as much as possible. This is huge. I’m a highly, highly sensitive person so I also do things like play music that really helps me start the day centered and begin to unwind from the day in a calm and happy way. Sometimes this feels selfish and in those moments I have to walk my talk around self care and desires and having what I want/need. When I do these things our whole household hums along more happily. It’s funny how what can feel selfish can often be what creates the most harmony. When I feel disconnected from my rhythm and need to find it again it can look like solitude and stillness or connection and movement. I might hermit in my bed with a journal and some good meditation music or silence or I may go to nature and walk hard, feeling the earth below me. Other times I’ll connect with a girlfriend and laugh my ass off or be enveloped by good loud music and dance dance dance. And very often it involves me and my camera. My camera puts me in a state of witnessing, suddenly the mess by the front door becomes art ~ a fleeting moment in my families story. I have a million examples of how this works for me. As a mom with four kids — all different ages, some still living at home, some not. There are a lot of people who need my care and attention. In order to show up for my family — while also taking good care of myself — I have to create and maintain my boundaries.
This means saying “no” to a lot of requests and a full on “yes” to others. It also means that I periodically need to “cleanse” my schedule — going through and hunting for personal commitments or projects that are draining my energy, and either removing them or adjusting them. I have become lovingly protective of my time and energy. Fierce, mama bear protective. I don’t always succeed “perfectly” with my self-protection and preservation… but I keep striving.
How do you nourish your wellbeing on a typical day?
Very similar to {re}finding my rhythm. In addition it’s often all about getting back to basics: sleep, good food, quiet time, fun time, creative time, a walk by the ocean or in the forest. Simple pleasures ground me and revitalize my energy. Oh, and of course… time with my camera! I love going for photo-walks, hunting for beautiful moments and treasures. Anything and everything is beautiful. Even garbage. Even grief. It’s all about how you capture it and frame it.
How do you most like to celebrate your body?
# 1 ~ kindness. This quote says it all for me
“and i said to my body. softly. ‘i want to be your friend.’ it took a long breath. and replied, ‘i have been waiting my whole life for this.’” ~ nayyirahwaheed
My road to body and self kindness has been a long one. Arriving at kindness has been one of the most freeing and energizing experiences of my life. I practice the celebration of my body through self portraiture, self massage, loving touch from others, movement that feels good, receiving compliments, feeding myself when I’m hungry, sleeping when I’m tired, holding my own gaze with love and words that lift up.
Lastly, tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?
I plan to… Live. Fully, long and big and to love the same.
I plan to… Capture love with my camera. Men, women, couples, families, businesses. Love stories of every kind.
I plan to… Continue to attract and connect with gorgeous sister friends like you. <3
I plan to… Create and reflect beauty out in to our world as much and as well as possible. Beauty is divine, beauty heals. {and beauty is flawed and messy and perfect}.
I also plan to… Tenderly inspire people to answer important questions.
Help men and women {young and old} to go after exactly what they want — and get it.
Be a present, energized, loving, happy and attentive mom, wife, friend, artist and business owner.
Be what Mister Rogers would call “a helper.” Someone who is caring, compassionate and striving to create and see goodness in a complicated, sometimes troubled and always beautiful world.
Those are my plans.
They feel wild and precious indeed.
Want more of Danielle Cohen?
You can book one of her crafted photo sessions. In love? Have a growing family? Want to have photo’s made that tell the story of your soul?
Let’s play with what else is possible.
Danielle Cohen is the co-creator of this yummy e-course: Gold: A 21 day course on practicing and owning your worth. Five amazing woman infused their love into this.
If you are going to invest in anything this year, invest in your own personal journey.
Life reflects back to you what you believe.. Believe you are worth all the goodness in the world. Sign up for GOLD!
{because when we ALL know our worth, new worlds are born}
will share their stories, navigations and personal practices around worthiness.
Connect with her on Facebook, Instagram and her Website.
