About Me

Welcome to my online gallery! I’m honored you’ve taken time to peruse my work. My passion for light, shadow, composition, color and contour in the natural world took root in me decades ago. When I was eleven years old and flipping through slides of a recent cross country family road trip, I was wholly captivated by a single image taken by my father on his Canon. It was a haunting, barren and beautiful landscape captured at the Great Salt Lake in Utah.

A seed was planted.

The image was of a single tree growing out of the far end of a decomposing concrete slab that stretched from the shore out into the salty liquid. The surface of the water was smooth and silvery, and all the colors in the image were subdued in such a way that the curves and crooks of the tree branches stood starkly and artfully against the sky. It was a marvel, and I couldn’t take my eyes off it. It held me, haunted me and moved me. Also, it inspired me.

I was given a cheap point and shoot camera for my twelfth birthday and began walking the earth with my eyes wide open to its boundless beautiful details—details that I had too often missed. Photography brought and continues to bring me so much joy. It attunes me to the world I’m an intricate part of. It guides me in contemplation and introspection. It invites me to be still and observe reality from a variety of perspectives.

Increasingly over the years people have begun putting in requests for the purchase of prints, calendars and cards, but my lack of confidence in my work became a blockade to my doing so. It’s my pleasure to finally lean into the encouragement of so many, and make it possible for people to purchase prints.

My name is Christy Berghoef. I’m a contemplative photographer, gardener, author, speaker, mother of four, student, wonderer and wanderer. I’m just getting started! Please explore my initial offerings- my first annual calendar and various packages of hand-signed photo greeting cards. Limited edition signed prints are coming soon!

I’m currently back in school, and it’s put a bit of a strain on our budget. Your purchase will help support the cost of tuition for my Doctor of Ministry Program in The Sacred Art of Writing, at Western Theological Seminary.

Thrive!

~Christy Berghoef