Uchechi Kalu || A Lifestyle Branding Session in Condesa, Mexico City

Uchechi and I have been friends online for years. I think we found each other through a mutual friend (Jules Taggart of Wayward Kind), and had an admiration for each other’s work. She’s an incredible poet and I have a very deep love of a well-turned phrase. Over the years, our friendship has deepened as we’ve gone through some big changes and big adventures at around the same time.

Uchechi’s creative coaching

Over the last year, she’s really been helping me find my voice, strengthen and amplify it. It’s one of the things she just naturally excels at. She’s one of those people who can hear you and repeat back what she heard with this crystalline clarity that somehow helps you know yourself better. It’s awe-inspiring. A conversation with her feels like sitting in the sun. You just feel warm and aired-out afterward.

One of the greatest joys the last few years has given me was the opportunity for us to meet up in person in Mexico City, and even more than that, to introduce her to my kids. Uchechi and my oldest are cut very much from the same cloth, and as I thought about how much Uchechi has helped me find my own voice, I thought how much my kiddos might get from a day of conversation and company with her.

Honing our vision

She needed some new photos for her website, and I was really excited to capture her in one of my favorite neighborhoods in the world. We talked about using the vibrant colors of the buildings in Condesa to accentuate her joyful spirit, then wandering over to Parque Mexico for lush greenery. I love greens as a backdrop in general, but one of my favorite things about Mexico City is all the little gardens everywhere, and I HAD to use some of them in our shoot. Plus, Churrería El Moro is right there and I love me a churro.

I wanted to just share photos of her here, but honestly I think if I want to tell you about Uchechi, I have to include some photos of my kids horsing around with her. You can see the looks on their faces and know how absolutely loved they felt by this woman who they’d just met. She makes you feel like you’ve known her forever. Also I’m a mom and I think my kids are cute. <3