Portrait photography can run the gamut in type and style—everything from the traditional “head and shoulders” shot to lifestyle and environmental, candid and street, glamour, boudoir, maternity sessions and much more. We kick this week off by honoring National Photography Month. May became National Photography Month in 1987 when Congress recognized the role photography plays in modern society. To celebrate, we’ve chosen five images that caught our attention and has special meaning for each of the photographers featured. What does photography mean to them and what or who inspired them along the way? Read on.

Kathleen Robbins left the Mississippi Delta where she grew up nearly 20 years ago to take a teaching position at the University of South Carolina where she is currently Professor of Art/Photography, serves as an affiliate faculty member in Southern Studies, and coordinates the photography program.

“I often return to visit family and to photograph my family farm, while contemplating notions of familial obligation and our conflicted relationship with ‘home,'” she explains.

“I use photography as a vehicle for building personal narrative and for exploring place and identity. During the past few years, after the unexpected death of my husband, photography was a way to mark time. There is a Lewis Baltz quote I share with students at the start of each semester: ‘Anyone can take pictures. What’s difficult is thinking about them, organizing them, and trying to use them in some way so that some meaning can be constructed out of them.’ In my practice the allure of making photographs lies in this kind of problem solving.”

Robbins adds that her maternal grandmother was a painter who lived in relative isolation on the family farm after Robbins’ grandfather died. “She was also a photographer in her own right and made Polaroids of the landscape of the Mississippi Delta and our farm to use as studies for her paintings. I was enamored with her stacks of Polaroids.”

In September 2012, Robbins traversed familiar backroads with her cousin Mary Carol, photographing primarily along Money Road between Greenwood and Money, Mississippi.

“Mary Carol and I noticed the smoke rising from miles away due to the unobstructed views offered by the flat landscape. I had never seen a tractor drive through a stubble burn before, and I was struck by the scene, which appeared both apocalyptic and transcendent. I am especially fond of the way Fuji Provia 100F film renders color, particularly in this image.”

[Read: Why I’m Falling in Love with Film Photography All Over Again]

When asked why photography and National Photography Month is important to her, Kylie Farmer first talks about how she started out—by picking up a camera as a way to cope with the loss of her dad.

“I quickly realized that my soul craved this creative outlet more than I ever thought possible. I fell in love with the ability to pause moments full of laughter and love that seem to happen quicker and quicker as the years pass by,” she says. “I take photographs to show my subjects the beauty of the season of life that they’re in. To remind them that each moment, each step, is an important part of their journey.”

Farmer says she often uses landscape to frame her wedding portraits by placing her couples in a way that allows them to be the most important aspect of the shot.

“I like to keep in mind the spacing of my subjects and make sure that the scenery pops within the frame,” she adds. “I love this portrait [above]—taken in Big Sur, California—because I feel that it helps illustrate the beauty that coincides with the journey of marriage.”

Sarah Larae Gilliam, based in Chatanooga, Tennessee, graduated with her PharmD when she was 23.  “Photography changed everything for me,” she says. “I was working as a pharmacist when I randomly bought a camera on impulse. At the time, I felt stuck in my life. I had nowhere for my creative impulses to go and my job didn’t encourage any sort of creativity. The thought of living that ‘normal’ life for the next 50 years was sinking me deeper into my depression.”  

Gilliam continues: “Tapping into my creative self gave me a new perspective and I literally saw light and the world differently. That random, opportunistic camera purchase turned out to be the perfect choice for me because I’m someone who finds satisfaction only when both sides of my brain are stimulated. The technical science of light and technology mixed with creative composition fires all my neurons and leaves me content.” 

[Read: And the Rangefinder Icon of the Year Award Goes to…]

For Gilliam, every month is National Photography month. She says that early on her photography was inspired by people like Roberto Valenzuela who “has a practical approach to art and photography that I find refreshing. I took a course of his and he showed some of his first sessions and I was so encouraged that even the photographers on top started at the bottom.”  She also loves Lindsey Adler—”her work is incredible and always leaves me thinking ‘How did she come up with that?’ And when I started shooting weddings, I fell in love with the work of Katelyn James and the beautiful, practical simplicity of natural light.”  

For this image, Gilliam says that she knew immediately after this sparkler exit that couple Grace and Turner were going to be surprised with fireworks so she prepared to make sure she had everything she needed to pull off the shot. 

“I set up my AD200 with a Magrid and Magsphere about 45 degrees and 10 feet or so from where I wanted the couple to stand,” she explains. “I also wanted to get the vintage headlights of the car in the shot and provide a touch of backlighting on the couple. After they ran through the sparklers I ushered them to the perfect spot and told them to enjoy themselves. I love this photo because it feels like the perfect way to end a wedding day filled with enthusiasm, celebration, warmth and love!”

Emmylou Kelly of Emmy Shoots is a lover of expressing light and movement in photography, and usually asks her couples for an extra session during their wedding day to create something different from their daytime session. She photographs weddings on digital and analogue cameras, creating a range of “timeless tangible images,” she says.

“At this point in the evening,” says the photographer of this image, “they were really relaxed and enjoying each others company so I asked them to dance and have fun with each other. As they were moving, the flash created a shutter drag of not only her dress, which was the main intention, but also captured their entire dance move and created ghost impressions of them both. They were on such a high, both couldn’t stop smiling and couldn’t keep their hands off each other. A ‘still’ image wouldn’t have been able to show the same energy and I’m so glad I was able to think on the spot.”

[Read: Perfect Your Lighting Skills with These Portrait Basics]

Laura Pannack is a London-based photographic artist renowned for her portraiture and documentary work. “I learn most when I walk with a camera; about myself and the company I share. I engage. I stop mentally. I listen.”

Pannack, who credits Diane Arbus as a big inspiration in her photographic journey says that photography is “an instinctual way of communicating. It allows me to be present and connecting with the myself and others.”

This image was shot in Ukraine when Pannack was working with World Jewish Relief and The Independent. “We teamed up with a local charity and our story followed kids who were excluded from the World Cup. We wanted to capture how their reality differed from the many tourists flooding in to watch the action.”

Dig into our Photo of the Day archives for even more compelling, eye-catching storytelling photography filled with unique emotions and expressions that you won’t want to miss out on! During National Photography Month, let us know what photography means to you and who you’ve been influenced by in your career. Send your portrait, wedding, editorial, documentary and commercial image submissions to jacqueline.tobin@emeraldx.com.