About Meg

Meg Loeks is an international award-winning portrait photographer, educator, and speaker based in Michigan's Upper Peninsula, where she lives on a hobby farm with her husband, five children, and far too many chickens to reasonably explain.

Her work has been exhibited internationally and recognized through numerous awards for its distinctive blend of color, storytelling, and narrative portraiture.

Though her love for photography began in childhood while hand-developing film in a darkroom, Meg initially pursued a degree in Advertising and Public Relations before returning to photography after becoming a mother.

For more than 12 years, Meg has taught workshops and spoken at conferences throughout the United States and internationally, helping photographers develop stronger observational skills and create more meaningful, story-driven work through intentional use of light, color, composition, and narrative.

She is the founder of Yesteryear Retreats, host of The Creative Thread Podcast, and proudly works alongside brands including SIGMA, Profoto, Imagen, and Adobe. She also volunteers with The Gold Hope Project, providing portrait sessions to families affected by pediatric cancer.

Artist Statement

My work explores the tension between tradition and individuality through constructed narratives rooted in home life, Americana, and everyday experience.

Using color, symbolism, and carefully staged scenes, I transform ordinary settings into photographs that feel both familiar and slightly uncanny. I am drawn to the rituals, expectations, and contradictions that shape our lives, particularly within the context of family, domesticity, and rural culture.

Many of my images begin with something commonplace. Through humor and narrative, these scenes become a way of examining larger ideas about expectation, resilience, conformity, independence, and the stories we inherit about how life is supposed to look.

At the heart of my work is an interest in contradiction. I am drawn to the space where affection and frustration coexist, where humor softens difficult truths, and where the familiar becomes slightly strange. By blending observation with imagination, I create images that question accepted narratives while finding beauty, absurdity, and meaning within the everyday.