She never expected to photograph strangers in lingerie or just doing their thing in their pajamas, but that’s exactly what Layra Marte is doing.
Today, the Brooklyn-raised Dominican photographer is celebrating five years since founding Layra Marz Photography. The company is known for its intimate, emotionally textured portraiture, particularly of women of color. Her clients include artists, activists, entrepreneurs, mothers, and people seeking to reclaim or rediscover themselves. Her photos blend pride and vulnerability, helping people show a piece of their story in an often literal open book to themselves.
Before she ever picked up a camera, Marte was fluent in a different kind of language: computer code. For 11 years, she worked as a programmer at an insurance company, clocking in each day for a steady job with pension and benefits. “But that wasn’t my life,” she said.
She walked away from it all—cubicle, security, paycheck—and moved back into her mother’s house. Her family was scared for her but supported Marte while she built her boudoir photography business.
“Learning that I’m worthy of having something like this … and showing them this is what’s possible because [they] made this sacrifice,” she said, was important for her. didn’t even own a business when she joined an online peer mentorship group back in 2019. That’s where someone noticed something in her that she hadn’t yet claimed: her energy. “I didn’t know what that meant back then,” she said. “I just showed up that way.”
That person invited her to collaborate on a global anti-bullying campaign, an initiative where people posed with negative and positive words written on their backs, symbolically shedding, through portraiture, what no longer served them. “I was like, ‘That looks super dope. I want to do that,’ ” Marte said. The woman was based in LA, but brought the campaign to New York, where Marte threw herself into organizing and promoting.
Marte ultimately photographed the campaign’s NYC iteration, despite not yet identifying as a photographer. She posted on social media offering free photo sessions and friends showed up. After just four sessions, it clicked that she could charge for this. Before she knew how to run a business, her first paid sessions went for $97.
In September of 2020, as a birthday gift for herself, she officially launched Layra Marz Photography, a portrait business focused on healing, self-expression, and transformation. What started as an experiment is now a thriving practice that centers women and femmes, especially Black and Latina clients, in front of the lens.
Marte’s sessions aren’t the kind that involve champagne and fluff. Her stripped-down offering, called “I Am,” reimagines portraiture as a mirror. That means no makeup artists, no stylists; just you, the camera, and her eye: “The point of the campaign is to celebrate you the way you see yourself,” she said. “This is how you see yourself, how you feel comfortable in the world, this is how you move every day.”
Clients leave with a custom photo book, a visual journal to return to in moments of doubt. “You might notice your sister’s gestures in your body. You might smile like your grandma,” Marte said. “It’s a reminder of how powerful you are.”
But the road to freedom has been anything but easy.
“Running a business isn’t the fun part,” she said, laughing. “I really want someone else to manage this shit. I just want to take photos.” Still, being her own boss has taught her resilience, resourcefulness, and the value of rest. She now blocks off her birthday month and all of December each year. While it means she has to work extra hard the rest of the year, it’s worth it.
After the anti-bullying campaign expanded to Paris, Brazil, and London, Marte found herself editing photos for the team, teaching herself post-production as she went. When the pandemic brought the campaign to a halt, Marte had already built her own clientele, traveling to Mexico, Austin, and the Dominican Republic. “People trusted my energy,” she said.
That trust has opened new doors—like an upcoming gig as the official photographer for a mindfulness and business retreat in Costa Rica. It’s the kind of work that fits right into her mission: capturing women at their most confident, authentic, and empowered.
She’s grown through burnout and breakthroughs. “It doesn’t feel like much, but it drains you, ‘cause this is not just a Kmart or whatever, ‘click, click, here’s your photo.’ This is me telling your story,” Marte said. “So dedicating the amount of time per person requires attention and care and love and conversation and connection.”
The stillness of the pandemic gave her time to recuperate and reflect. “I hadn’t hibernated in five years. My body was thanking me,” she said.
It also helped her cement her vision for the business and weather others’ unhelpful projections and judgments. “People have told me, ‘Your stuff’s not really boudoir,’” she said. “And I’m like, ‘It is because I want to call it that.’ I don’t have a name for what I do. That’s just the closest I can get.”
What she offers is a mirror held with intention. “After getting to know [people], creating that connection… they trust me to guide them through it,” she said. “Then I tell them their story back through what I see in my lens.”
That permission to be seen fully, honestly, and without apology is what fuels her work. “You being fully yourself in the studio gives me permission to do the same,” she said.
Marte’s success isn’t flashy. She didn’t go into debt. She rented studios as needed, stayed lean, and built on her own timeline. “I’m a nomad,” she said. “Owning a studio in New York City is pricey. I didn’t take on debt. That helped me feel free.”
Still, she’s dreaming of a permanent space. But even that will come in her own time. “Try it first,” she advised new photographers. “You don’t want to lease a studio and then realize you hate shooting indoors.”
Community, she says, is what’s kept her afloat. She says she has been blessed to join communities where like-minded people support each other and grow together. With them and her own conviction, Marte is building a legacy where people, especially women and people of color, make a habit of seeing themselves through a loving lens.
“A lot of people think photography’s only for weddings or babies,” she said. “But you can book a session like you book a massage or a spa day. You deserve to see yourself. To celebrate yourself. To hang a portrait in your house and not feel vain for it.”
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