@AmericanBlake is me, Blakely Lewis.
My love of photography began when I was given a camera for my thirteenth birthday and used it until the shutter burned out. I have always had a heart of sentiment and missing moments before they were gone.
My vision has slowly become what it is today through a collection of experiences, like a box of matches waiting to be struck.
Growing up riding horses with my family and visiting my great uncle Otis’ ranch in New Mexico; a few of my first matches.
Flame caught when finding an old family scrapbook picturing the stories I heard growing up.
American Blake is about the people and land that I love. Intentionally seeing them and capturing to cherish moments of love and life.
I’m drawn to what is real. The raw edges and true forms of people and nature; what God created and called good.
Feeling the spirit in the land so much that you don’t have to own it to feel that you’re from it— I was born on this land and will be buried under it.
I look at the bare landscapes of The West and sculpture of a crooked smile and see their beauty; likewise in the architecture of a horse or calloused old hands.
I was given a legacy through the stories I grew up hearing; grit and integrity survived through story telling that I believe photography has a powerful way of doing.
In the back of a scrapbook my grandparents had written to my dad and now to me, “Always remember where you came from and keep a record for those who will come in the future.”
This the heartbeat of American Blake: preserving legacy, documenting real life, and making something that carries forward once we are gone.
to remember & record
My heart and vision has grown to capture photos of love and life in your story. Warm, candid portraits meant to be cherished like the kind you’d tuck into a scrapbook for generations to find.
