A mother of four, photographer, nature lover. Someone trying to make sense of it all, through photos and stories. 

I try to be free in all senses of the word, so I made the leap and now work with what I love doing; taking pictures, storing this life in moments, both for myself and for clients. My heart is in photographing birth and motherhood, but I take on just about any photography job. 
(See my birth photos at www.birth.no and the rest of my work portfolio at www.mariavatne.no.)

I live on a farm in Norway with my man Nik and my children Ronja, Freja, Falk and Ulv, plus a bunch of animals. We grow our own food as far as the seasons allow it, we don't go to kindergarten, the three youngest ones will be homeschooled.

We govern our own lives, we strive for independence, we want to be in this life wild and free and full of love.

Farm kids collected.

What makes me happy: Being outside with all three of them in the afternoon, when Ronja is back from school and we have time to do anything we want. We play, explore, pick stuff from the garden to cook for dinner, visit our animals. Suddenly they will come up with a fun game and lose themselves in it for a while, and then we'll all go in and warm up. Stuff like this makes me calm and happy, it makes me feel that this works, this family life is good. The fact that all three of them are sporting the same classic farmers overalls too, well that just makes my heart burst a little at the seams.

Today.

Pumpkin patch kids.