From modeling data to modeling dreams: Eliane’s creative shift

by Guy Boustany

Life is rarely a straight line. It often throws us onto divergent paths, demanding focus on the pragmatic while the echo of childhood dreams fades into the background hum of adult responsibilities. Yet, sometimes, the forgotten current of those early aspirations catches up, leading to a profound, and wholly unexpected, personal reawakening.

I’m a full-time data engineer and a freelance professional photographer. While both fields are rooted in complex systems and technical mastery, I never imagined a scenario where these two worlds would not just collide, but beautifully merge. That convergence arrived in the form of my colleague, Eliane.

Eliane is, by day, an actuarial manager and a dedicated mother of two. Her professional domain is the meticulous, chaotic world of data science modeling, a landscape of risk assessment, statistical projection, and high-stakes financial calculation. For the past fifteen years, she has excelled in building an analytical fortress, steadily leveling up in the company and dedicating herself to a robust professional career.

In that ascent, she quietly buried her childhood desire for the creative energy of beauty and fashion modeling. The world of catwalks and cameras became an ethereal memory, sacrificed at the altar of logic and stability. The distance between the girl who dreamed of art and the woman who mastered analytics felt immense, until opportunity knocked in the form of a collaborative partnership.

Recognizing a shared hidden passion, we decided to embark on a series of photoshoots. For Eliane, this collaboration was designed to be a breath of fresh air, a moment of reprieve from the daily stress of corporate life. It allowed her to tap into that inner model, bringing a vibrant, expressive self-back to the surface. For me, it was a chance to fulfill my long-standing passion for evocative portrait photography, capturing the quiet strength and kinetic energy of a woman embracing her truest, most complete self.

Throughout this entire journey, we both witnessed our parallel dreams come vividly to life. My prime lenses had finally found a worthy model and the results were immediate and astonishing.

In front of the camera, Eliane was a natural. She projected a genuine, expressive ease that instantly belied her years away from the fashion world. The camera didn’t just capture an image, it captured the essence of “little Eliane,” the girl whose dream had never truly died, performing as if she’d been doing this her entire life.

We didn’t rely on luck. We carefully chose the location, theme, and wardrobe for every photoshoot, treating each session as a chapter in her journey. Every single shot revealed a hidden depth and a mutual creative passion that we both once feared had been irreversibly lost to the responsibilities of adult life.

The story, ultimately, is not about leaving one life behind, but about demonstrating that a person can be brilliant in both; that the same focus required to navigate the complex actuarial environment can be translated into the compelling presence required to hold a camera’s gaze. The lens beautifully captured the moment the data model stepped out, and the lady model stepped in.

Photos by Guy Boustany