Who are you – what is your background?
I’m Cassie Emmett! I live in Hamilton NZ, I’m a mum to three kids, who has a passion for birth and photography. I’ve been photographing births now for four and a half years and have photographed over 130 amazing births in that time.
What led you to birth photography in particular?
When my youngest child was just over a year old, I decided I’d like to train as a midwife, but the timing of this didn’t work out unfortunately, so I planned to put that off for a year until she was older. In the meantime, I just felt like I wanted to learn something new!
I’ve always loved photography and have had an ‘eye’ for it, so studied through The Photography Institute to gain a Diploma in Digital photography. Halfway through the course, we were asked in a module what genre of photography we wanted to pursue. After scrolling through Facebook one day and stumbling across a birth image, I instantly knew that was my genre – Birth Photography! My tutor Justin wasn’t convinced it would be a ‘thing’ and that no-one would really want it, so encouraged me to photograph newborns and babies.
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However, I scoffed that idea and stuck to my guns and leaped right into birth photography. It’s taken off for me, and I’ve loved every moment. Justin and I laugh now (we are friends) about his initial hesitation towards birth photography, because the irony of it all is that I’ve photographed the births of both of his babies.
What you hope your photography of births will achieve – for the mothers, for the greater audience?
For me personally, being a birth photographer is not only about capturing all the emotion, the incredible moments and the enormous joy surrounding the arrival of a new life, but to also create social change by showing women worldwide what birth can look like, that birth is normal, that it is empowering and beautiful. Positive images of birth can only have a positive influence on society.
