I Didn’t Start as a Family Photographer

My journey to Family Art Photographer

Before Nashville… before families gathered around finished artwork—

I learned to see life in a very different way.

As a Combat Medic, I carried a camera alongside everything else during the war in Iraq.
I captured moments I witnessed—moments that weren’t abstract.

They were immediate. Fragile. Final.

There’s no retake in those situations.
No second chance to capture it better later.

That perspective never leaves you.

When I returned home I had to capture life…, photography stayed—but the purpose evolved.

As a photojournalist in Nashville, TN, my work became about observation.
Not creating moments… but recognizing them.

Learning to step back.
To let life unfold without interference.

To understand that the most meaningful images are rarely staged—
they’re noticed.

Then came a different chapter.

The ocean.

In the Cayman Islands, photography became something else entirely—
less about urgency… more about immersion.

Weightless. Quiet. Surrounded by a kind of beauty most people never experience firsthand.

Light moved differently.
Time felt slower.

The work became art in its purest form.

I captured thousands of beautiful images underwater. But over time, something became clear.

Beautiful images… weren’t enough.

Because the question wasn’t just:

“Is this a powerful image?”

It became:

“Where does this live?”

And that question changed everything.

Today, based in Franklin / Nashville, Tennessee, my work is no longer about chasing images.

It’s about creating something that stays.

Because most families don’t mean to lose their memories to their phones—
it just happens.

Life moves fast.
Photos get taken.
And then… they disappear to “The Cloud”.

My work exists to interrupt that.

To take what matters most—
your Family, your Relationships, This Season of Life—

and turn it into something tangible.

Something intentional.

Something designed to live in your home… not in your camera roll.

piece of art that will be handed down generation to generation.

This isn’t about a photo session.

It’s about what remains years from now—
when the moment has passed, but the meaning hasn’t.

Because the goal was never just to take pictures.

It’s to make sure they matter.

Reko Ponton Photography
Franklin / Nashville, Tennessee

Family portrait artwork designed to live on your walls—and last far beyond the moment.