My name is Liviu Patachi and I come from an country called Romania, or to be more precise Transylvania, (most people associate us Dracula). Everybody calls me Liv, my wife when we first met she could not pronounce my full name so I ended up baptised as Liv in the UK.
I cruised through life doing jobs that I absolutely hated. I have been a waiter, a chef, a real estate agent, a carpenter and personal trainer. But nothing kept me fulfilled, I always felt supressed, and unhappy.
I bought my first camera when I was 15 and I was super excited to use it, unfortunately it was second hand and broken. I was so disappointed I didn’t want to have nothing to do with photography thereafter.
Things changed in my life over the coming years, I got married at 26 got divorced by 27. The reason being I was in an emotionally and psychologically abusive relationship, constantly feeling emasculated, devalued and utterly useless as a man and partner. I decided to leave my homeland to find purpose.
After just a few months in UK I meet a gorgeous girl at the gym (it was her induction day and I felt the need to help her adjust to the environment and support her health journey). As times moves on we get to know each other as we sit up through the nights talking and sharing our life stories. We soon start dating, I moved in with her and her two boys, and finally I have a family.
Together we planned to have our third child, a daughter! My partner just finished her studies and she was looking forward to become a professional in her field and having a full-time career. I was given the chance to become a stay-at-home dad. It was the greatest privilege being able to raise my children, and be fully present.
Everything seemed great at the beginning, but then COVID hits, as months where passing the depression was setting in, changing roles was not easy, I soon understood what a woman goes through on a daily basis and how hard it was to keep everyone well, keep up with the running of the house, and try to meet even my basic needs. My job started when my daughter wakes up and ended when she would go to sleep (I wish) she didn’t sleep for 2 years and neither did I. I can now see why sleep deprivation was used as forms of torture!
I was stigmatised, shamed, judged and was made to feel out of place pretty much wherever I would go- especially at baby and toddler groups. At that point, I tried not to take it too personally but inside I felt like we had made the wrong decision to stay at home to be the primary care-giver. I felt like I had been stereotyped. I was isolated, unhappy and depressed.
In all of this I learnt to appreciate women that are involved in their kids life actively and absolutely get and understand the struggle.
In many groups that I would attend would be a lot of female conversations and I started to realise how mistreated some females are. The partners would say hurtful things or make them feel low and down, be dismissive of their efforts and disregard their feelings. Financially some women do not have the ability to earn money whilst raising young children, so they are dependant on their partners, some of which would withhold funds or access to money.
To this day I still love my wife regardless the changes we went through during these difficult times, and she tried to support me the best she could. There is a sure combination of respect and appreciation for what she did for me and the children outside of her working hours.
At times, I did feel de-skilled and confused about my identity as I only knew myself as a husband and father.
I went to university to study business I realised soon after some of what I learn would come in useful me, and especially when it came to me starting up as a sole trader and starting a business of my own. I found a new love for art, creativity and everything that involved getting to what made people unique. I took to picking up a camera and since I’ve never put it down, I take it everywhere with me. I absolutely love to create art and noticed my perception of the world changed.
I am 100% confident in my abilities now. I love my career and I’ve learnt that it is never to late to start over.
My wife and children, are the reason I do what I do. They make me a better person.
My main aim is to help people to feel confident and especially women that have suffered so much adversity and those who were made to that they are not enough. YOU ARE AMAZING!
and so… through Boudoir training, experience and getting to understand what a woman wants, I claimed niche in photography. I like to create and capture the perfect moment and make every shoot and unique and help beautiful women to see themselves as they are.
I went to my first wedding photoshoot, as a second shooter, instead of being treated as an equal I was in fact made to carry his ladder, I only had side view of the bride and groom and the whole ceremony I was cast out and really felt I’d just be taken advantage of the whole day. This was a really bad experience, as I know I would never treat anyone in that way, especially a fellow photographer. I wouldn’t let this get me down and proceeded to continue with wedding work and it actually been hugely successful. My perseverance and patience paid off. I have worked with some amazing people!
I knew my wife had skillsets what would really benefit my clients a boudoir shoot, so I approached her and asked if she might be interested in helping the women feel at ease by bringing her amazing social nature, and positive attitude into the space. We continue to learn, prepared everything down to the finer details- down to the lighting, backgrounds, contractual terms, expectations, outfits and poses ect. We wanted the client to benefit most of all. We got a lot of help from mentors, for which without we would not be here today. The shoots have gone so well, that people have felt comfortable enough to leave us impressive reviews. The clients/model have felt revived, appreciated, confident, and beautiful.
There is so much reward in knowing that you changed someone’s perspective about themselves, and that they will go home feeling happier, empowered and more confident in their body.
This is a business of promoting natural beauty. It still amazes me how well people do, even when initially feeling totally out of their comfort zone. We like to put people at ease throughout the entire shoot, talk them through the whole process, and show them how to extenuate and highlight out their gorgeous features.
We love what we do as a team and as couple this brought us closer together, raised the trust levels and made me fall in love with my wife all over again.
Being a male in this type of work isn’t always received well, but is only weird if you make it weird and we don’t. We only have good intentions and you will see this upon our first meeting.
We are going to do this for the people that need us and for which we can always offer our very best professional service to get the most special photographic experience.
Girls we hear you and we want to help! This is me exposed, vulnerable but being 100% truthful. This is my story.
Be Brave, Be Bold, Be Beautiful!
