Jasmina Kimova

Jasmina Kimova

Every Picture Tells a Story

By Jane Kendall    Photography by Jasmina Kimova

When you walk into Jasmina Kimova’s home studio you immediately feel transported to a fine art gallery with a high fashion exhibit. The portraits on the wall are indescribably breathtaking! It has been just a year and a half since her move to Beaufort, a place that nurtures her spirit, where she finds herself surrounded by like-minded creative and talented artists. Her journey to get here has required enormous courage and trust in her intuition.

 As a young child growing up in the country of Macedonia, Jasmina would cut up sheets and design clothes, envisioning herself as a famous costume designer. She plastered her bedroom walls with high fashion designs from magazine covers. Her parents, both lawyers, talked her into law as a career direction. That didn’t last long. Her independent and creative juices were bubbling over. Utilizing the skills she honed to build a court case for a jury, she founded an advertising agency with expertise in branding for high-level corporations. After a while she burned out. She realized she had lost her priorities. She was working long hours for money, while her precious son was being raised by nannies. She was also feeling stifled in Macedonia and longed for a change. Katar was her next stop, where she worked as an advertising executive. After one year, she decided it was time for another move. She took a gigantic risk by accepting an advertising position in Sarasota, Florida, selling her home and moving across the ocean with her two-year-old son. With no family in the USA and knowing no one, Jasmina courageously embarked on her next life chapter.

Once settled, Jasmina’s longing for creative expression resurged. She had invested all the money from the sale of her home in expensive photography equipment and immersed herself for five years in advanced image editing and design training. It was a huge gamble with no guarantees. When she felt that she had polished her skills to a professional level, she opened her first studio in 2009 and started selling stock photographs and landscapes. She later started photographing people and instantly connected with everyone. After one conceptual shoot with a model, her direction quickly evolved into creative portraiture.

Jasmina’s goal during a photo-shoot is to create a beautiful, comfortable and safe environment in her studio to help her clients connect to their inner essence and beauty. She magically creates a story through her imagery, using elements in the portrait which are meaningful to the subject. Her portraits are truly unique, and often utilize objects for symbolism. They are meant to be stories that stay alive. Creating a space for someone to get away from their daily routine, to open up and have fun is a priority for Jasmina. She finds that it opens her clients up to their own self-expression and self-love. She encourages them to: “Have trust and let go. Be whoever you are. Everybody has a different shape. Everybody is beautiful. We need to work on accepting who we are right now, because tomorrow is not promised,” she said.

Jasmina's goal during a photo-shoot is to help her clients connect to their inner essence and beauty.

As you can see from her photographs, Jasmina has definitely found her passion and purpose. She likes to think of her work as portrait therapy. She believes that art is the only cure to any pain.
For the future, Jasmina is passionate about creating a consortium for women to motivate and empower each other. She is seeking start-up hair stylists and makeup artists to train and inspire so that they can fly and reach higher levels in their careers.” We are all connected. We cannot do things alone. If you need help, just ask. People will always be there to help you.”

Jasmina believed in her dream. She paid no attention to naysayers. She turned a deaf ear to fear, which is a stumbling block for everybody. Rather than focusing on the risk, she focused on her goal. If you want to make a change, but think “what if it doesn’t work,” Jasmina’s advice is to think instead: “What if it does!”

 

Creativity doesn’t end at the images. Each image has
its own title of expression.

Top image: Jasmina Kimova
Mid Left: Diamonds
Are Forever
Mid Right: The Girl With the Pearls
Bottom Left:
My Name is Joy
Bottom Right: My Grandmother’s Legacy