I'm Michele Zee, and I am very proud to welcome you to my corner of Joy Et Mare! In 2018, I found myself recently divorced with a brand new baby girl. In an attempt to salvage our marriage, my ex-husband and I had sold our house the year prior, and bought a van to travel around in. Sounds like the perfect way to speed up a dissolving relationship, right? So I was newly single,  a new mom, and I didn't have a place to live that wasn't on four wheels. I needed a job, but to add another twist to my story, I was a three time college dropout with very few prospects. I had no job, no house, no husband...but I did have a camera. 

​

My only real boudoir experience had been photographing drag queens in their dressing rooms (with permission, let's be clear), but I had a weird hunch. No one else was doing the kind of thing I wanted to do, not in northern Michigan. Boudoir photography gave me a freedom to be creative that I couldn't find in any other niche. I liked moody, I liked creative. I liked thinking outside the box and getting a little artsy with it. I liked being able to create a safe space for my clients to get in touch with themselves in a way that maybe they hadn't been able to do for years. 

​

Boudoir or empowerment photography became more than a job, more than a career. To someone like me, who had never really thought before about what I could be when I grew up, it felt like a calling. The people I've met through photography, the lessons I've learned, and the places it's taken me are far beyond anything I ever could have dreamed of for myself. Joining together with More Joy Yoga to create Joy Et Mare has been like a coming to a beautiful new path on the journey laid out by the universe. This feels correct, like a divine plan from a higher energy. Speaking, writing, living, and breathing words of power is what makes my life magical. I cannot wait to show you what it is I do.