Hi there! I’m Afton Welch, founder and CEO of Boudoir by Afton.

I’m SO glad you’re here.

I figured it was time to introduce myself formally. I’m a boudoir and intimate portrait photographer in New York City, but photography wasn’t my first love and it won’t be my last, I’m sure. In addition to photography, I’m also a yoga teacher (more on how that informs my photography later…), a personal trainer, a writer, and a candlemaker. I’m also always knee-deep into some new funky hobby- this month, it’s watercolor. Next month, it’ll probably be roller skating. or long distance running (again).

I meditate every day (@op_e___n is my favorite app), I’m always perfecting my chocolate chip cookie recipe, and I do manifestation work through To Be Magnetic. I grew up in Dallas, Texas, went to college for Theatre in Columbus Ohio, and moved to New York in late 2015. I’ve been barely catching the Subway on time since!

For a good while, my heart was in performance and photography was a hobby. You’d catch me snapping headshots of my classmates and documenting social functions, but my focus was on my acting career. As time has passed and I’ve gotten older and wiser, a new path has been paved toward a career in photography, with a special focus on boudoir.

The further and further into my boudoir journey I go, the more i realize how important it is for clients to get to know their photographer and what boudoir and photography truly means to me.

For me, boudoir is more than just what it can be sold as. Yes, I believe in the sexiness and confidence a boudoir session can supply. But it’s deeper than that. Of course it’s empowering, but I like to define what exactly “empowerment” means. To me, boudoir is political. Its an act of liberation, of poetry, its courageous, it’s a statement.

Why boudoir photography is so powerful

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As time goes on and division pervades our society and culture here in America, where I live and call myself a citizen, I see now more than ever the importance of championing womanhood and what it means to be a woman or a femme- whether you’re cisgendered, trans, or exploring your gender journey.

Each day, there are powerful people fighting - and winning - to strip the rights of women, Black women, trans women, poor women, disabled women, fat women, women of Color, undocumented women, mothers, and folks who have been socialized as any of these identities. Bills are written, fought for, passed, and enforced that deny our right to exist peacefully, if at all.

Abortion is illegal in almost half of all states in America.

Black women are three times more likely to pass away of a pregnancy-related complication than white women.

Trans people experience violence at rates far greater than the average person.

Decades worth of studies show that fat women experience an unfair weight penalty in the workplace, earning less than both fat men and thin women.

Can boudoir fix all that? No, absolutely not, and I’d be an ignorant fool to expect it to. But I choose to live in a world where the art I make and the incredible subjects that help me make it says: I’m right here and I’m not going anywhere. You can’t erase me, you can’t erase my body, you can’t erase what I’m capable of, you can’t erase my story. You can’t minimize my worth, you can’t take what isn’t yours, you can’t beat me down.

I’m using my art, my talent, my voice, my connection, and the power of my community to fight back.

The future of boudoir

I want formidable boudoir. I want unapologetic boudoir. I want political boudoir. I want joyful, courageous, expansive, fearless boudoir. I want to be the change I wish the see in the world, as that one guy put it! Boudoir CAN change lives. I believe that deeply, unapologetically, and with my full lacy-bra’d chest.

My mission for my business is to change the lives of women and femme folks through boudoir photography by igniting joyful courage and irresistible confidence. My vision for the future of Boudoir by Afton is to contribute to the radical liberation and unmitigated joy all women, femmes, and marginalized folks deserve to feel in their bodies and in their lives. Tell me that’s not so freaking exciting?!

If you’re on this ride with me, I deeply thank you. If we’re meant to create something beautiful together, I welcome it with exhilaration and passion. If I’m jumping up and down and kicking my feet, that’s how you know.

Please feel free to poke around my website, look through my portfolio, skim my Substack, stalk my instagram, and send me memes.

We’re in this together, clad in lace, clinking glasses, changing our own lives with each other’s help. And dancing to Beyonce. Always Beyonce.