Like many ideas in life, we cycle back to what we believe we’re meant to be and do. For me, I’m honoring that I must create.

When I was seventeen, in my first photo class, I remember opening up my textbook and asking myself, "What kind of photographer do I want to be?"  I had the sense that I wanted to be a photographer before I even started the class, though I knew little about it.  The only question was what kind.  I wanted to be an artist, but I thought that I needed to be practical. Photojournalism intrigued me, too – I would get to learn about different people and cultures, telling the stories of others.

In between being that 17-year-old student and now, I earned my undergraduate degree in photojournalism at the University of Missouri, Columbia.  I then moved to New York just before September 11th (where I photographed the twin towers falling from five blocks away), and shortly after, San Francisco, where I lived for eight years.  In addition to being a freelance shooter, I have worked as a studio manager, photo editor and photo producer in both the editorial and commercial industries.  In 2012, I fulfilled a long-time goal of earning my master's in teaching.  Being the daughter of an art teacher, I always thought teaching would become a part of my life at some point.  For three years I had the opportunity to teach some incredible young people art at my old high school – in the same room where I first began learning the craft.  

I taught cooking for two years at the middle school level before traveling abroad in 2019 to concentrate on oil painting. I eventually landed in Mexico, where I worked for two years before returning to St. Louis to start a cottage bakery—Bread & Butter.

Which path are we each to walk?  
For me, in this short life, I am pursuing my passions.  
Life is love, art, and getting lost in the joy of it all.  

Tracey Haynes Photographs

St. Louis, Missouri

 web@traceyhaynes.com

All photographs and paintings © 1998-2022 Tracey Haynes. All rights reserved.