Pamela Salerno: Keeper of Light and Winter Lore
Written by Epifania Arriagada. Photography by Pamela Salerno of Artistic Captures Photography
Model: @embrace.your.inner.fire
Red Velvet Gown: @costureroreal
Antlers: @mudandmajesty
Yule has always been a threshold season. A turning of the wheel where warmth becomes a prayer and the forest becomes a cathedral of shadow and spark. It is a time of lanterns, antlers, evergreen crowns, and the ancient promise that light will return even when the world feels sunless. It is in that sacred in-between where Pamela Salerno’s photography feels most at home.
Last year, she stepped into the woods with her model draped in deep crimson velvet the color of winter fire. Antlers crowned her hair like a blessing from the Old Gods. A lantern glowed in her hand. The forest folded around her like memory. Every frame Pamela created feels like the opening scene of a folktale whispered by ancestors.
Pamela is a lifelong artist who began with watercolors and sketchbooks before life nudged her toward a camera. Nearly twenty years later, she is known for her natural light portraiture and her uncanny ability to transform outdoor landscapes into realms of myth and story. She sees the world the way Yule asks us to see it through layers of symbolism childhood wonder and the quiet magic hidden in the wild.
Her love for storytelling comes through in every detail the way she places a hand on moss the way light bends against antlers the subtle emotion in a glance that feels both human and otherworldly. Pamela’s imagery invites viewers into a world where winter is not merely a season but a spirit guide.
Yule is the celebration of rebirth protection warmth and the spark of life carried through the darkest nights. Pamela’s work speaks that language fluently. The red gown symbolizes fire and survival. The lantern becomes the soul’s guidance. The antlers evoke the Horned God the ancient guardians of the forest the cycle of death and renewal. She captures what this season means not just visually but emotionally.
Her art reminds us that we do not journey through the dark alone. Someone before us has carried the light. Someone after us will carry it too.
For Pamela this shoot also reflects who she is beyond the lens a mother an explorer a painter turned photographer a woman who hikes camps crafts and pours her love for nature into every image. Her years of capturing dance movement grace and emotion have shaped a visual language rooted in storytelling and soul.
This winter Bruja Magazine is honored to showcase Pamela’s Yule series as part of our seasonal celebration of myth feminine archetypes and the fire we carry through the cold months.
May these images warm you remind you and guide you into the turning season.
And to Pamela thank you for bringing the forest’s magic to life for us.
Photography by Pamela Salerno of Artistic Captures Photography
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artistic.captures.photography/
Website: https://www.artisticcapturesphotography.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artisticcapturesphotography
