I am not here to merely click a shutter. I am here to be the lifetime steward of your permanent archive.
Grounded in academic foundations of Psychology and Human Development, I build an intentional sanctuary where the exhausting performance of "perfection" completely dissolves. Leading with the heart of a friend and the eye of an architect, I preserve the quiet, holy exhales, the electric tension of an unspoken glance, and the sovereign beauty of a love that is fiercely your own.
THE NARRATIVE HEART
The Language of Morning Light
The dream began long before I had the language to name it.
At seven years old, my mother’s coffee table was my first studio. With an old film camera and Barbie dolls, I wasn’t just taking pictures—I was obsessively building worlds, directing spaces, and discovering that natural light could speak. The way morning light whispered through windowpanes and shadows stretched across worn wooden floors became my earliest teachers. The camera did not arrive in my hands as a technical tool; it arrived as a vessel for wonder.
That childhood seed was never protected or nurtured by the world around me, but it refused to die.
Years later, life brought its first sharp crucible. Following the loss of my daughter in 2013, I bought my first professional camera. I did not buy it to start a business; I bought it because I desperately needed a place to put my grief. Holding that camera gave my aching hands a sacred assignment—a physical home for love that had nowhere else to go. It was the beginning of an unbreakable vow: to use light to stand guard over the things that matter most.
The Awakening of Avery
The boy who broke the lie of earned love. For so much of my life, I believed a dangerous lie: that to be loved, I had to perform. I spent years wearing thick, protective armor, guarded and braced for impact, convinced that affection was a wage you earned rather than a grace you received.
Then came Avery.
When my son took his first breath in October 2016, my entire universe broke open and rearranged itself. Holding those small, fragile hands in mine, I was met with a soul-deep, unconditional love that asked nothing of me other than to exist. Avery didn't need me to perform; he just needed me.
Motherhood deepened my reverence for time into a roaring fire. Avery gave me the courage to bet on myself, to master every shadow and shutter speed, and to officially launch Viva Por Tí in February 2017. He taught me what legacy actually feels like. Every wedding covenant I witness, every mother I hold space for in labor, and every unscripted Story Session I guide is dedicated to that truth: your worth does not have to be earned. You deserve to be witnessed exactly as you are
A Rebellion Against Silence
Why I refuse to let your history settle for a digital grave.
There is a quiet violence in grief that permanently reshapes the architecture of being. My obsession with physical heirlooms isn't a sales tactic—it is a deeply personal rebellion against forgetting.
When my mother was only three years old, her mother took her own life. Because of the stigma and pain surrounding her death, she was buried in an unmarked potter’s grave, and the few photographs of her that existed were locked away, held hostage by family members for decades. I grew up witnessing the ache of a mother who couldn't remember her own mother's face—who hungered for a single photograph, a physical trace of belonging, and was met only with silence.
I know the agony of reaching for an ancestor and finding nothing.
Years later, that ache deepened when I lost my first love and best friend, Xavier, in June 2022. In the quiet aftermath of that loss, I realized something that fundamentally altered my art: a photograph freezes a heartbeat, but a film returns the breath. When I missed him, I didn't look at pictures. I searched for video clips to resurrect the sound of his laugh, the cadence of his voice, and the way he moved through a room.
That is why I brought documentary cinema and authentic Super 8 motion into Viva Por Tí. It is why every wedding includes an integrated engagement prelude, and why I fight so relentlessly for custom, hand-bound albums. I do this work so your children and your children’s children will never have to wonder what your love sounded like, how you moved, or how it felt to be held in your light.
Beyond the Shutter
The academic foundation of safe harbors.
Most photographers approach a wedding day or a portrait session with a camera and a shot list. I arrive with the nervous system of an architect. My formal academic training—holding a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Human Development & Family Studies—is not a decorative credential on my resume. It is the structural engine of my work. It allows me to read the unspoken dynamics of a chaotic bridal suite, understand the attachment rhythms of a toddler during family sessions, and hold an unshakeable container of safety for a woman shedding her armor during Sovereign Boudoir.
B.S. IN PSYCHOLOGY
The study of the soul, nervous system regulation, and unvoiced human needs.
B.A. IN HUMAN DEVELOPMENT & FAMILIES
The structural architecture of connection, attachment, and the delicate ecosystems of family lineage.
A DECADE OF STEWARDSHIP
Entering year ten of unscripted documentary preservation.
1,000+ CHAPTERS ARCHIVED
A living library of covenants, births, and transitions trusted to our protective hands.
I call my capture approach Best Friend Meets Director. I guide your posture, hands, and environment so you never feel stranded or awkward in front of the lens. But once you are grounded, I step back and leave room for moments to breathe. I turn up the music, adjust the lapels, dry the tears, and dissolve the performance so that what surfaces is visceral, effortless, and true.
THE CORE VALUE MATRIX
BRIDGING TEXT & TRUTH
THE LITERARY SOUL
Obsession with narrative architecture, pacing, and chapters. Your life is the only book never reprinted.
THE INTENTIONAL WITNESS
Validating your reality through unhurried observation. No stiff shot lists; only the authentic pulse of your belonging.
THE ARCHITECTURAL EYE
Curating light, shadow, and environment—from historic stone estates to coastal rocks.
THE MODERN ROMANTIC
Old-school, soul-deep love documented with a moody edge, high vitality, and cinema.
A shared devotion to the archive
Viva Por Tí is anchored by Dominique Marie, but our preservation work expands through the dedicated hands of our creative collective. We believe wholeheartedly in community over competition, moving together in seamless, unspoken sync on your wedding day.
Nathan & Rob (Julius Film Co.) — Lead Documentary Cinematographers
Dedicated collaborators translating kinetic movement, atmospheric light, and acoustic whispers into moving heirlooms through fine-art digital cinema and authentic, light-struck Super 8 film.
Kourtenay — Second Witness
Sharing an identical somatic devotion to live documentary coverage, ensuring multi-angle immersion while honoring the sanctity of unscripted moments.
Your Life Is an Unprinted Volume
The pen is now in your hands.
You are the author of a masterpiece that will never be reprinted. Each breath unfolds once; each chapter etches itself permanently into the amber of memory. Whether you are preparing to exchange sacred vows along the granite shores of Newport, crossing the threshold of birth, or stepping into your sovereign unveiling inside my private Rhode Island atelier, my hands are prepared to hold your light with absolute reverence. Step past the performative noise of the screen. Enter the sanctuary.