At the age of thirteen I was obsessed with photography. I enjoyed my time alone with my camera exploring the rustic scenes on my family's dairy farm. As a member of my middle school yearbook staff and through 4-H photography project competitions, I was able to give my creative eye some direction. Approaching my high school graduation, I desperately wanted to plan a future with photography at the heart of it. With the counsel of my parents, they encouraged me to choose another path upon my departure for college and I searched for some other interest to replace my passion for photography.  

As a sophomore in college I worked part time at Ellis Photography, Inc. in St. Paul, MN. That was the turning point back to pursuing photography as a career. I began as a sales associate, added on the role as a wedding photography assistant then I became the  studio /wedding photographer while completing a degree in Art History/Rhetoric with a minor in Photography. I enjoyed my time in Minnesota and the community of photographers that Ellis employed but I was feeling it was time to return back to Wisconsin and start out on my own.

In April of 1999 Photos by Leslie Faye was established and it has been quite a ride since then. A growing business, growing family, changes in technology and the focus of my business has brought me here today with an abundance of knowledge and immense appreciation for generosity of my hometown. I have met some of my favorite people through photography. I am grateful for the longterm clients that have trusted me from the very beginning as their wedding photographer, when they welcomed their first (second & third) child into the world, and what seems impossibly too soon, sent them off to college. I am hopelessly nostalgic and find myself heading down memory lane when I see photos on display in a clients home and especially in my own home. I love that I got to be a part of that. That image. That blink of a moment in time. 

Here in the year 2026, Photos by Leslie Faye is experiencing somewhat of a rebirth. My fourth child will be off to college in the fall. I am building a new space to create and looking forward to planning your portrait experience with me. Expect to see a return to nature, more authentic than plastic: the untamed mane of her teenage spirit, a sprinkle of spring freckles, stretch marks of a matriarch warrior.

-Leslie Faye