Miami Portraits and Photo Restoration: Odette Photo+Art's 9th Anniversary

Today, Odette Photo+Art turns nine.

My photography baby was born on a day like today in 2017. Over nine years, I've photographed families, couples, business owners, and people getting ready for their next love story. I've also restored 306 family photographs, holding more than 12,000 combined years of history.

Portraits for the people we love today.

Restorations for the ones who came before us.

To me, it's all part of the same work: legacy.

It started with a column

Long before the business, there were Pixeles and Codigo y Letra.

Back in Cuba, while I was teaching at the University of Informatics Sciences, I created Pixeles, a weekly column, in Dragones, our faculty e-newspaper. Every week, I shared my photos and my favorite images from photographers around the world, and I built a small community of people who loved photography as much as I did.

I also joined Codigo y Letra, a group of amateur journalists, where I documented life at the university and the lives of those around me.

I didn't know it then, but those two projects were the beginning of everything.

The camera in the drawer

Years later, I moved to the States. In 2016, I bought myself a camera for my birthday. It had always been my dream to document memories with a "real camera." Instead, the real camera sat in a drawer collecting dust for more than a year. It was mostly an expensive decoration.

Then a friend told me to join Looks Like Film, a Facebook community for photographers, and the images I found there hit me like a train of inspiration.

On a day like today, in 2017, I took my camera on a photo safari to the Fort Lauderdale Boat Show with a great friend. My love for photography came back that day, and it never left.

That same great friend also told me, "Take one good picture a day." It was the best advice I've ever received. I started a 365 photo project. I photographed my friends' children on the weekends and spent my nights editing and studying.

What grew from there

I started as a family and children's photographer. From hobby photographer, in 2020, I made the business official, right before the pandemic hit. I could barely work, so I started to learn how to run a business. I added personal branding and product photography because incredible things happen when we help others rise.

That same year, I completed my first photo restorations. It began with a close friend's only surviving photographs of her grandmother. What started as a passion project became a pillar of my work.

In 2022, I added dating portraits. Love stories need a great first photo too.

Along the way, I made a promise to plant a tree for every portrait as part of my partnership with One Tree Planted. More than 1,164 trees later, I'm still keeping it.

Why I do this

Photos show we have lived. They keep our people close once they're gone, and someday they'll do the same for the ones who come after us.

The instinct that made me want to document life in Cuba is the same one that drives every session I photograph and every heirloom I restore.

The portrait we take of you today is the heirloom someone will hold tomorrow.

It will outlive us.

It's part of your legacy, and mine.

Thank you

If I've ever photographed you or restored your family heirlooms, we have a bond that will last forever. Thank you for trusting me with your story.

I love you, and I'm thankful for you.

Here's to the next nine.

With love,

Odette