about Vera
I was born in Serbia and moved to the United States in my twenties. Like many immigrants, I arrived carrying more hope than certainty, trying to build a life in a country where everything felt unfamiliar. Photography found me before I understood why I needed it. At first it was simply a way to create something beautiful. Later it became my career. Only much later did I realize it had quietly become the way I made sense of people.
I've always been fascinated by human behavior. Why do two people experience the same childhood and grow into completely different adults? Why do some of us spend years doubting ourselves while others seem to move through the world with ease? Why do certain moments change the course of a life while others quietly disappear? Those questions have followed me for as long as I can remember. Life eventually gave me more questions than answers.
I grew up with an alcoholic father and later spent sixteen years in an abusive marriage. The years that followed were slow ones. Therapy. Support groups. Long walks. Difficult conversations. The quiet work of rebuilding a relationship with myself. Looking back, I don't think healing happened all at once. It happened in hundreds of small moments. Moments when I laughed without guilt. Moments when I trusted my instincts. Moments when I realized I no longer needed someone else's permission to decide who I was.
Somewhere in the middle of all of that, photography changed too. I stopped chasing perfect photographs and became much more interested in honest ones. The images I love most are rarely the most polished. They're the ones where someone forgets they're in front of a camera. Where a conversation becomes more important than a pose.
Today, I work primarily with women because I admire what they're building. Entrepreneurs. Artists. Therapists. Designers. Stylists. Mothers. Women beginning new chapters after divorce or career changes. They all arrive with different stories, but they're often asking the same quiet question: "Can I really do this?" I don't think my job is to answer that question. I think my job is to remind them that they already have.
When I'm not photographing, you'll usually find me walking by the ocean, reading about psychology, collecting inspiration for future shoots, or spending time with my husband, our two dogs, and a cat who remains entirely unimpressed by all of us.
Photography has given me far more than a career. It has introduced me to remarkable women whose stories continue to change the way I see the world.
I hope, in some small way, my photographs help them see themselves a little differently, too.
with love,