Welcome!
For photographers who give a damn.
Boudoir is an incredibly vulnerable genre of photography and throughout the years we have seen harm come to clients and potential clients who put their trust in a photographer only to have that trust broken due to behavior, actions, or statements made both intentionally and unintentionally. In an effort to mitigate these harmful behaviors, we have established a panel of extremely brilliant individuals who are advocates in certain areas to help YOU become educated on the ethics required to minimize harm and create an amazing experience for your clients. Included in your tuition is the 7 Pillars Program, which contains all of the 101 courses including: Body Image 101, Ableism 101, Mitigating Harm in Photography 101, Therapeutic Photography 101, Anti-Racism 101, and Sexology 101. At the completion of this course, you will be able to proudly say you have taken the initiative to start the work needed to show up for your clients, have the confidence to speak up on certain human rights issues as an advocate/ally to protect your clients, and take the necessary steps to improve your client experience on AND offline.
And besides, equity is sexy as hell.
-photo by Teri Hofford-
"If I have the opportunity to become a better human, why wouldn't I?"
Hello! My name is Teri Hofford, and I am the founder of The Boudoir University. I have been an advocate for body image and human rights since the beginning of my photography career and the longer I am in this life changing genre of photography, I realize the need for more education and understanding by photographers about what it means to be a human at various intersections of oppression.
Like many photographers, I didn't realize the harm I was unintentionally causing my clients, simply because I did not know anything beyond my own life experience. In addition to that, I realized how many potential clients I was keeping away because of my stance (or rather, lack of stance and confidence) on speaking up about human rights issues.
I created the Boudoir University to give photographers a central place to access these courses in an effort to improve their knowledge of the complexities of being human but also to provide concrete and practical advice to make their business more inclusive and safe. While it was designed for the boudoir photography community, I truly believe this content is an asset to any photographer dealing with humans at any level.
Courses
For the first quarter of the year, we are featuring The 7 Pillars Program and our free 7 Strategies e-book to get you started. Every quarter we will be looking to add new elective style courses, so you can look forward to those!
"Finding Teri, as a budding boudoir photographer, was exactly the person I needed to find. Her perspective was refreshing, unique and the right dose of no bullshit that pushed me into doing the challenging, hard things that would ultimately come to revolutionize not only my business but also the way I see and treat myself. For a long time, I said that when I grow up I wanna be Teri. I've come to realize that's no longer true. When I grow up, I wanna be me. And despite having never actually MET Teri, her advocacy, education, talks, and endless resources are paving the way for me to reach myself and my highest potential. I have an enormous amount of gratitude for her work -- thank you thank you."
- Megan E.
