Today we’d like to introduce you to Taylor Prinsen.
Hi Taylor, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I picked up my mom’s camera in middle school and never really put it down. I shot my first wedding at 17 and that threw me into the deep end in the best way. I was always the friend documenting everything, but some adults around me saw something in my skills and encouraged me to take it seriously.
I studied nonprofit leadership in college, which gave me a foundation in storytelling, purpose, and community that still shows up in my work. I was shooting weddings, families, and portraits all throughout college and my first few jobs, building a client base behind-the-scenes. By 2018, I took the leap and went full-time as a freelance photographer, and spent the next several years growing my business in Austin – shooting brands, events, boudoir, weddings, and more. I got to work with some incredible clients along the way – Bumble, Athleta, SXSW, Tim Ferriss – and was named the #1 Lifestyle Photographer in Austin by Peerspace, which felt like a really amazing validation of that early bet on myself.
But after a while I wanted a new challenge – creatively and personally. So I applied to Paris College of Art in 2024 and just last month in May 2026, I received my MFA in Photography & Image-making. Now I split my time between France and Austin, working with clients across Europe and the U.S.. It’s a beautiful full-circle moment where the scrappy high schooler with a camera is now shooting luxury hospitality on the Côte d’Azur and showing fine art work in Paris, but the core of it is still the same.
I love people, I love stories, and I love making images that actually make you feel something.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Honestly, no – and I think anyone who says it has been is leaving something out!
The biggest gut-punch was COVID. Weddings and portrait sessions don’t exactly thrive when gatherings are banned, and almost overnight my calendar went from full to empty. That was a real “okay, what now?” moment. I did what I had to do – I tried teaching photography via Zoom, doing socially distanced front porch sessions – anything to keep the lights on while I figured out how to pivot. It was humbling and difficult, but it also built a resilience I’m appreciative of.
Beyond that, the unglamorous reality of running a creative business is that you’re never just a photographer. You’re also the accountant, the marketing director, the customer service rep, the contracts person. There are months where the creative work feels secondary to all of it, and there are slow months that test your confidence. You start to question whether the feast-or-famine cycle is just the nature of the industry or something you’re doing wrong.
What kept me going was genuinely loving the work itself – and having enough moments where a client cried looking at their images, or a brand came back for another booking – to remind me why I started and why I wanted to keep going.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
My work spans a few different worlds: brands, editorial, weddings, and boudoir – but the through line in all of it is authentic storytelling and human presence.
The work I’m probably most known for in Austin is my boudoir photography. Over the past several years I’ve done more than 230 paid boudoir client sessions, and what I can tell you is that the work is so much more than just pretty pictures. I’ve watched women walk into the session feeling nervous, shy, and closed off in many ways – and then leave with something fundamentally shifted within them. That transformation – that moment where someone sees themselves clearly through my lens, maybe for the first time – never gets old. It’s the work I’m most proud of, hands down.
It became such a meaningful part of my practice that I made it the focus of my MFA thesis at Paris College of Art. Getting to study the psychological and artistic impact of boudoir photography – from a “female gaze” – academically, and write about what I had witnessed firsthand across hundreds of sessions, was one of the most fulfilling things I’ve done in my career.
The MFA changed me as an artist in ways I didn’t fully anticipate. Going deep into art history, theory, the context in which images are made and received – John Berger’s Ways of Seeing was particularly formative – really rewired how I look at a frame. It’s one thing to have a good eye instinctively. It’s another to understand why an image works, what it’s in conversation with, and what you’re saying by making it. That layer of intentionality has elevated everything I shoot now.
I think what ultimately distinguishes me is that I’ve never separated the art from the business, which is a tricky line to walk. The same values that drive my personal work – empathy, intention, the female gaze – show up in every client project too.
Is there anyone you’d like to thank or give credit to?
So many people deserve credit – this has never been a solo endeavor.
First and foremost, my Austin community. I was born and raised in Austin and the city still holds me in many ways. My mom, sister, friends, family. They believed in me before I believed in myself, and that kind of unconditional support is something I don’t take for granted. When you’re a teenager telling people you want to be an artist, many people don’t take you seriously – or tell you to reconsider.
Before I went full-time, I reached out to photographers I admired and just asked them honest questions about what the business was actually like. Kate Stafford Weaver and Molly Culver were female photographers I looked up to and who were generous with their time and knowledge. That kind of openness from established creatives meant everything to someone standing at the edge of a big leap, and I’ve tried to pay that forward ever since.
And then there are my clients – who honestly kept the business alive, especially through the hard seasons. During COVID in particular, several clients paid upfront for sessions they’d book later, just to support me. That kind of loyalty goes so far beyond a transaction. My repeat clients especially hold a special place – they’ve followed me through different seasons of my work, my life, and my location, and that means the world to a small business owner.
Finally, the Austin creative community as a whole. There’s a real culture of referrals and mutual support among photographers and creatives here: I send work their way, they send work mine, and everyone rises. It’s one of the things I love most about Austin and something I genuinely miss when I’m abroad.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.taylorprinsenphotography.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tayprinsen
