Jacadra Young

   Who am I? A photographer who hates writing about herself. No seriously. I do. At this point I could regale you with stories of my youth, to include the cliche of running around as a toddler with a 35mm camera in hand, but no that's not how it happened. Truth be told my first camera was a poloraid and quite frankly it wasn't mine it was my mothers'.  Not until highschool, my senior year actually, that the staples in my book bag were my chemistry book and a disposable kodak camera. I would never say it out loud that this was what I wanted to do with my life, yet I always found myself taking pictures when no one was looking. To date I credit myself with having made an artistic contribution to all of the Davis family photo albums.

Later I upgraded from disposable cameras to full on film and then digital, studying the art form here and there. After my son was born, like most new moms I wanted to capture every minute of his growth, so there I was taking pictures of my baby with my little point and shoot. Of course these images were horrible because simply put, I didn't know what I was doing. I found myself a student of youtube, photoblogs, and photo articles. Determined to hone my craft, I bought photography books, studied the work of a number photographers I admired. I volunteered at church to take pictures of people, don't get me wrong, my son is adorable, however mommy needed some variety in her portfolio.Â

Seven years later, I find myself a wife and a mother of three, and I'm still learning. Since embarking on this journey I've launched my own business, Photography By Jacadra and had my work published in, Black Female Photographers magazine. Not bad for a kid that grew up in Forestville, Maryland, especially since I'm just getting started.Â