Launched in 2005, WellesleyWeston Magazine is a quarterly publication tailored to Wellesley and Weston residents and edited to enrich the experience of living in two of Massachusetts' most desirable communities.
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Foley is finding the same joy in sharing her love of photography with her own school-age daughters. They're often the ones prompting her to take her Nikon D90 SLR digital camera as they walk to school together or are out on weekend excursions. Foley has welcomed, in fact, cultivated the interest and encourage- ment of her family and friends from her earliest days behind the shutter. The sim- plicity and natural feel of her family pho- tos caught the eye of neighbors more than a decade ago. Over time, she began accept- ing commissions from neighbors – and their friends – to take family portraits. And so Lisa's Photography was born. Her portrait business had been grow- ing steadily by spring 2009 when those robin's eggs hatched in her front yard. A friend suggested notecards. She tested the waters at one of the next home parties a Wellesley friend hosted to show her work. Other artists have chosen to print on traditional photo paper and then adhere it to a card, but Foley wanted a fresh approach. "I wanted to differentiate my product in the market," she said. If that sounds like business school speak, that's because it is. Foley earned her MBA from Babson College in 1996. "I've always wanted to run my own business," she said, but wasn't sure what form it would take. Serendipity has always seemed to play a role at key times in her life when a decision needed to be made or a direction chosen. A native of Connecticut, Foley attended Bates College in Maine with the intention of majoring in political science and economics. But her mother, gently but firmly, insisted she take at least one art history course. "I loved it," Foley said. Art history soon became her major. She credits some of her artistic eye to the years spent studying master- pieces, as well as her grandfather on her mother's side who was an accomplished amateur photographer in his day. Foley has many fond memories, too, of time spent with her own father in the darkroom he fashioned in their family home. They would labor for hours developing film and watching the images emerge slowly from the chemicals. "The shared experience was a wonderful bonding experience for both of us," Foley remembers. W e l l e s l e y W e s t o n M a g a z i n e | s p r i n g 2 0 1 4 164 "her love of photography" artist profile 160-166_WWMa14_artist profile_lisa_v2_WellesleyWeston Magazine 2/2/14 1:06 PM Page 164