Marvella Duarte Coon came to the United States with a plan: spend three months learning English then go back to Venezuela and keep building a corporate career. More than 21 years later – happily settled in Pickerington with her photography business, a husband and two kids – that isn’t quite how things worked out.
Duarte Coon describes herself as a dreamer, someone who always chases after her wildest aspirations, no matter the cost. That mindset put her on a path to stay in the United States, to seek out volunteer opportunities and, eventually, to leave her safe career path and pursue her passion for photography by starting her own business.
“I am a person that commits,” she says. “If I want something, I will do whatever it takes.”
Photo courtesy of Marvella Duarte Coon
Photography had always been an integral part of Duarte Coon’s life. She easily transitioned her desire to capture intimate moments with her family and friends and a commitment to empowering and uplifting others into her photography work. But it wasn’t easy – it took moving continents and starting a family to set her on this journey.
Initially, traveling to the United States to study English as a second language at the University of Findlay served as yet another step in the path she’d already set out on. Even with her ambition, she quickly realized that learning a new language would take considerably longer than anticipated, and three months in the U.S. turned into a year.
As conditions in Venezuela destabilized around the turn of the century, Duarte Coon chose to stay in Ohio and continue her education. One year turned into another and Duarte Coon found herself with two master’s degrees, two daughters and a husband.
Now, Duarte Coon and husband Tim Coon’s daughters, Sophia and Alexa, are 8 and 6 years old.
Duarte Coon’s father bought an old camera as a Christmas gift for her in 2017, and it was a lightbulb moment for her.
“Working so much as a project manager really consumed a lot of my life and I was missing these first months, first years with my daughters,” she says. “Even though professionally I was very satisfied about what I had accomplished, personally I wasn’t. So, I was at a point where I needed to find an answer to what I needed to do to change things to be better, and to feel happier, and to be with my family and not miss those moments.”
Duarte Coon threw herself into photography, practicing endlessly, watching videos and even hiring a photographer to mentor her. In six months, Heartfelt Photography was born.
Taking early inspiration from the photos she regularly took of family, friends, travel and events, Duarte Coon now uses her skills to capture cherished moments for others.
“I love to bring happiness and success to other people,” she says. “One of the most beautiful things to me is to have photographs because those represent stories and those memories bring us happiness.”
Understanding the desires of a client and how to achieve their goal is one of the most important parts of Duarte Coon’s work. While some know exactly where they’d like to take photos and how they want them to look, many seek a photographer’s insight.
“I visualize the session: If it was me, what would I do?” she says. “What would I do if it would be for me and my family? You always want the best.”
Photography has also presented Duarte Coon with a way to give back to the central Ohio community. Though the amount of volunteer photography she can do is limited, she has a rich volunteering life beyond that including work at senior centers and more than a decade with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio.
“If we can touch at least one life and make it better, it’s very powerful,” she says.
Having achieved so many of her own dreams – learning English, settling in the United States, beginning her own photography business and, her biggest dream of all, becoming a mom – Duarte Coon sees her contributions to others as a necessary part of her life as well.
She continues to preach the same wisdom that led her to a career in photography. She believes that, just like she is, everyone is capable of following their own dreams.
“Life is all about dreams,” Duarte Coon says. “If you really need to make a change in your life and start from zero, do it.”
Cameron Carr is the associate editor. Feedback welcome at ccarr@cityscenemediagroup.com.
