How I found my Mission Statement

“I photograph real people, honestly.
My mission is to help you see yourself clearly and feel beautiful in your own skin.”
-Laura Vaughters

I grew up in a family of twelve — loud, full, busy, loving, but overwhelming in a way that made it easy to disappear into the crowd. I spent so much of my childhood looking for moments where someone would pause long enough to truly seeme. Not as one of the twelve. Not as another face in the group. But as me — Laura.

That longing shaped me more than I realized.

When I became a photographer, I thought my “why” was simply that I loved taking pictures. I loved the creativity, the lighting, the art of it all. But as I photographed more people — mothers, couples, children, women stepping into their worth — I felt the real truth rising:

I wasn’t just taking photos.
I was giving people the one thing I spent my childhood searching for: the feeling of being seen.

I photograph the way I wish someone had seen me back then — with patience, with softness, with curiosity, with honour. I pay attention to the quiet things: the way someone’s eyes change when they talk about what they love, the way their shoulders drop when they finally relax, the tiny moment where they forget the camera exists and just… exist.

Choosing my mission statement wasn’t about branding or strategy. It was about looking inward and naming the heartbeat behind my work.

My mission is to create a space where every person feels truly seen — clearly, honestly, and without apology.
Because every person deserves to recognize themselves in their photos and love what they see.

This mission is personal. It’s healing. It’s the bridge between who I was and who I’m becoming — not just as a photographer, but as a woman learning what it means to take up space with confidence and truth.

And maybe, in showing others their own worth through my lens, I’m learning to see myself too.