saved

In 2023, my husband and I packed up our shoebox-sized apartment, said goodbye to our fast-paced Manhattan lifestyle, and headed to our new, adorable coastal Connecticut suburb. We purchased a fixer-upper and embraced it.Our house was built in the ’80s and came complete with linoleum kitchen floors, a compartmentalized dining…

I was enjoying lunch with a friend during my summer vacation in London when she asked about the whereabouts of the rest of the family.My husband and tween son were at a museum, I told her. I said I wasn’t sure about my daughter, then 15. I explained that we’d…

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Allen Cooley, photographer, director, and founder of Allen Cooley Photography, a commercial, beauty, and portrait studio based in Atlanta, Georgia. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.I’ve been working professionally as a photographer since about 2006, and for most…