Hello!

I’m Maria, and I love bringing stories to life. My mission is to capture your most treasured personal memories in heirloom-quality books.

I’m a storyteller at heart. In my pre-U.S. life as a licensed social worker, I became interested in other people’s life stories and the turns they take. Social work was the perfect fit for my empathy and listening skills, but my desire for storytelling in a creative way was stronger. It led me to pursue a degree in documentary photography in Germany as well as at the International Center of Photography in New York. From there, I went on to earn my Master's from Tisch/NYU.

In my later work as a photographer, I discovered that photo books were the perfect container to hold stories the way each story wanted to be told. I quickly realized that a traditional album doesn’t do our stories justice. It’s simply a filing system–yellowing, coming apart at the seams, each album no different than the next, aside from the precious lives represented within.

Not only that, but... despite our best intentions, many of our photos don’t even make it to an album. They’re kept in dusty shoeboxes, cluttering up our smartphone storage, or existing in the perpetual limbo of the cloud. The task of sifting through and organizing hundreds of photos is what keeps so many of us from doing anything with them at all!

I began to wonder…
What if a photo book were more of a story book? What if the individual threads of a story were woven together with the photos, letters and mementos to create a more immersive narrative experience? What if the book could be a piece of art in itself? And… what if I could take away all the work - the biggest stumbling block that keeps people from displaying and enjoying their photos?

I soon learned that I wasn’t the only one hungering for a meaningful way to bring stories back to life. And thus, my studio was born! I now create books that are so personal, they allow you to relive your captured memories as vividly as if you had stepped back in time. It’s important to me that the binding of the books I deliver, rival an art book you could have picked up in a museum book store. And that the format of the book is custom crafted to match the story it tells.

For more than a decade, I’ve been designing luxurious, custom made photo books and paper goods for Fortune 500 executives, prominent personas of the entertainment and tech industries, and anyone who cherishes a well made book. I’m proud to create books that bring gasps of delight and tears of joy to the families and individuals I work with.

In addition to being passionate about personal photo books, I am married and have two little boys. Over the years, I’ve lived in Romania, Germany, Switzerland and New York, and I’ve now found my home just outside of NYC in Ridgefield, CT. My clients, however, are all over the world. Distance is never a barrier to working some magic with your photos.

It’s time to say goodbye to the traditional photo album, and that photo file mess in your cloud. Your treasured memories deserve better. Let’s get them out of the box and into your life. Let me do my magic and create beauty from the chaos.