Boudoir Photographer Shares Heartfelt Email from a Client's Husband After His Wife Asked for Retouched Photos
Victoria Caroline Haltom
A boudoir photographer says a heart wrenching email from a client's husband helped remind her that "loved ones cherish and adore us just as we are."
Victoria Caroline Haltom, of Victoria Caroline Boudoir in Texas, shared an email she reportedly received from the spouse of a former client through her business' Facebook page earlier this week.
In the sweet memo, the husband reportedly wrote that seeing Photoshopped images of his wife from a special shoot she did as a Christmas gift made his heart sink.
"These pictures…while they are beautiful and you are clearly a very talented photographer….they are not my wife," the man reportedly said. "You made every one of her 'flaws' disappear…and while I'm sure this is exactly what she asked you to do, it took away everything that makes up our life."
In the email, the husband said the couple had been together since they were both 18 and share two children. He also wrote that he felt the album was his wife's attempt to "spice things up."
"When you took away her stretch marks, you took away the documentation of my children. When you took away her wrinkles, you took away over two decades of our laughter, and our worries," he reportedly said. "When you took away her cellulite, you took away her love of baking and all the goodies we have eaten over the years."
The man went on to write that he understood Haltom was just doing her job, and that the email wasn't written out of anger, but rather, appreciation.
"Seeing these images made me realize that I honestly do not tell my wife enough how much I LOVE her and adore her just as she is," the message concluded. "She hears it so seldom, that she actually thought these Photoshopped images are what I wanted and needed her to look like. I have to do better, and for the rest of my days I am going to celebrate her in all her imperfectness."
Haltom wrote that the note made her cry "like a baby with guilt," but asserted that she had been just following her client's instructions.
"Ladies, I can Photoshop just about anything. But I encourage you to think twice about how much 'altering' we do," she wrote, then added, "I encourage you to embrace YOU just as you are."
