Photographer Spotlight: Margo Ducharme

"I had a previous existence as a hair and makeup artist, and before that, I owned a letterpress printing business," explains photographer Margo Ducharme, whose work we discovered in designer Raquel Allegra's gorgeously orchestrated lookbooks. "I have forever been taking and collecting pictures, but it took me a long time to put the words photographer, artist, and career together."

After abandoning ambitions for country music and marine biology, Ducharme put her energies into model test shoots, serving as photographer, stylist, and makeup artist on set. It wasn't until spring of last year, when Raquel Allegra tapped the artist to shoot her spring/summer lookbook, that Ducharme was handed the reigns for an entire project.

"It was the first time I was given complete creative control from a commercial client that I really respected," she explains. "The process cemented a faith that there was a space for me in art and commerce, and was the beginning of a collaborative love affair."

Old vacation snapshots of her family in the groovy 70's -- "particularly a snapshot of my mother looking way stylish standing in front of an RV on a west coast road trip" -- are continual sources of inspiration for Ducharme, who calls her work "honest" and "intuitive." Both words only begin to describe, however, the raw appeal of her portfolio, which comes across as candid and strangely old without falling into the pitfalls of "retro" photography. 

Contact Us