Kirsten Rebekah Bethmann, aka Kirsten Lewis, is an international photographer, educator and public speaker based in Colorado. Over the last 2 decades she has traveled to over 40 countries to work with organizations, non profits, companies and individuals creating documentary based pictures to aid in fundraising, advertising, awareness and personal family archive builds. In addition to photography, she has given over 80 presentations globally in the last 12 years of her career.

Kirsten’s experience in the education field spans as long as her photographic career. In 2002 she graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a degree in child psychology, a concentration in learning and cognition and a minor in fine art. Since then she has taught in the public school system, on Creative Live and Craftsy Inc, with the Dallas Center of Photography, the Foundation Workshops, Documentary Family Retreats. with countless photography conferences and privately through Kirsten Lewis Education.

Kirsten’s work has appeared in The Huffington Post, The Washington Post, SLR Lounge, Range Finder, Herald Extra, Richmond Magazine, Style Weekly, Chew On This Magazine, Downtown Guide RVA, Go West, R.Home, The North Beach Sun and Eltern Magazin. Notable clients include the Joe Biden campaign and Amazon Studios.

Kirsten is a brand ambassador for Pixellu, Shoot Proof, The Image Salon, Honey Book and Think Tank.

Kirsten is attributed to being the primary force in the documentary family photography genre of photography. In 2014 she taught her very first class Modern Storytelling, Family Photography on Creative Live. She shared her unorthodox approach to commercial family photography after 8 seasons of popularizing her real life beach portraits and Day In The Life sessions in the Outer Banks, NC. From that class, a genre of photography was embraced by photographers around the world: Documentary Family Photography, an alternative to the family portrait. Following the success of that class Kirsten went on to teach two follow-up classes which have garnered upwards of one million views. Kirsten now co-owns the Documentary Family Awards with Jenna and Tristan Shouldice.

Kirsten lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, street photographer Greg Bethmann and their five year old daughter Byrdie Mae. She is available for contracts, assignments and commissions worldwide.