✨ About

I’m Monika — a photographer, a social worker, and a curious drifter.
I work with people, stories, and places — slowly, symbolically, and with care.

Sometimes that means a documentary portrait on a windswept pier.
Sometimes it means photographing a teddy bear holding guilt.
Sometimes it means helping someone feel seen for the first time in years.

Whether we’re chasing light across a hilltop or sitting in quiet conversation with a camera nearby, this work isn’t really about photography.
It’s about collaboration. Permission. Connection.
And the courage to meet yourself — without flinching.

Through therapeutic photography sessions, I offer a space where you can show up as you are — no performance, just presence.
I also create long-form photographic projects exploring identity, belonging, and emotional weather.

I photograph small-town rituals, carry a family of plastic monsters in my camera bag,
and sometimes let the toys say what people can’t. And I believe every dog has a story worth telling.

If you see me wandering with a camera and a cloud-shaped toy — I’m probably working. Or drifting. Or both.

🎓 Education & Foundations

This work didn’t come out of nowhere.
It’s rooted in years of showing up — in social work offices, on grief-soaked doorsteps, in classrooms, forests, and photographs.

I trained in social work first — and I still work in a frontline role today.
Later, I studied autism, trauma, coaching psychology, and therapeutic photography.
Along the way, I became a personal trainer too — because healing sometimes starts in the body, not the mind.

These experiences shape how I work: with care, with questions, curiosity and my ability to see the story beneath the story.

Right now, I’m completing a Master’s in Photojournalism & Documentary Photography at the University of the Arts London —
continuing to explore how stories live in places, people, and everyday rituals.

📚 Qualifications

(For the curious or credential-minded)

  • Postgraduate Diploma in Social Work – Robert Gordon University (2012)

  • Postgraduate Certificate in Autism - University of Strathclyde (2018)

  • Personal Training Qualification Level III  (2020)

  • Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Positive Psychology and Coaching Psychology, with Distinction – University of East London (2022)

  • HNC in Photography – University of Highlands and Islands (2022)

  • Postgraduate Certificate in Therapeutic Photography, with Distinction – Robert Gordon University (2025)

  • Currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Photojournalism and Documentary Photography – University of the Arts London (ongoing)

🧭 A Bit More About Me

• I don’t ask you to smile. But I do ask questions — the kind that help you hear yourself again.
• I photograph emotional weather: the invisible stuff that makes a day feel light, heavy, or haunted.
• I believe in pauses, strange metaphors, and quiet forms of recognition.

🌀 Something New Is Coming

The same approach I use in long-form documentary work — emotional translation, symbolic language, collaborative care — also shapes how I help people show up in their business.

I’m quietly developing something new: branding for people who hate branding.

It’s for people who want to feel seen in their work, not just polished. People who want to build something true — without hiding the parts of themselves that matter most.

(A separate page is coming soon.)

✉️ Let’s Talk

Most people come to me unsure.
Unsure of what they need, how they feel, or where to begin.
That’s okay. We start from there.

You don’t have to explain yourself.
Just begin where you are.

Whether you’re drawn to this work for yourself, your story, or your business, there’s a way in.

→ Therapeutic Photography
→ Branding for People Who Hate Branding (coming soon)
→ Documentary Collaborations