Art is my life.

For over 25 years I've been working in the portrait photography business as a retouching artisian. Ever wonder why everyone in those magazines look so young and perfect? Whenever I look at them I see a wonderful retouching job.

If only I could do that to myself in the morning....

Retouching is one of the most challenging endeavors for an artist considering that your art work is judged upon the ability to NOT see any work that has been done. The final product must look like the original photograph. Every hair in place, along with every freckle. Therefore I was that invisible person behind the scenes making everything right. I've won several awards for my retouching using airbrushing, dyes and pencils both locally and nationally.

Then times changed.

Photoshop replaced all the individual hand tools for this trade when the computers came about. There wasn't a choice in this profession so photoshop became my best friend and deepest challenge. But now after 10 years of pulling my hair out I can finally say it is worth it. The possibilities of creation are now endless. Having photo retouching as my background, my style combines my own photography with as much artwork showing as need be. Maybe it was cloudy that day and I wanted sun. Or maybe a few extra flowers here and there to softened the image. Call it revenge of the silent one if you must. But the art has got to be released somewhere.

Having a deep love of gardening, I use the endless beauty of nature in all my work. What started out as a simple garden has now grown into a small park. For every plant that was bought for study had to have a place in the garden. Besides, tending garden allows me the intimate time with the plants to fully study and photograph their own uniqueness.

Ann Lauwers

©All photographs appearing in this Web Site site are the property of Ann Lauwers
and are protected under United States and International copyright laws.
The photographs may not be reproduced, stored, or manipulated
without the written permission from Ann Lauwers.

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