MONTE VISTA — A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held on Friday, June 10 at 38 Washington St. Representatives from the Monte Vista Chamber of Commerce were present to help cut the ribbon for two new businesses. 

Both businesses are in the same building, Kim Marquez Photography and Fluid Space Wellness. Both businesses belong to Marquez. 

Marquez was all smiles as she held the giant pair of scissors and cut into the large red ribbon held by members of the Monte Vista Chamber, and by both of her parents, along with her partner Mike. 

“I want to thank the Monte Vista Chamber and everyone who is here today, all the community members,” Marquez said. “We have been in business for the last 5 years as Fluid Space, but as far as the photography it’s been 9 years. We have never had an actual brick-and-mortar, so this is really meaningful to me to have a space downtown. Thank you, guys, so much.”  

For as far back as Marquez could remember she loved photography.

“I remember being a little girl and photos were a really big thing,” she said. “I was always that kid that took pictures. I have a whole tub of developed pictures. I always had a camera with me on all my vacations and events with my family. My mom used to take a ton of pictures, too. She was always the one with the camera at all the events. Honestly though, photography kind of found me.”

Marquez said she can remember working in the corporate world and doing sales and marketing for many years before she became a photographer.

“When I was living in Denver, as a hobby, I used to take a lot of landscape and street photography,” she said. “After that I had people coming to me to ask me, ‘hey can you take pictures of my wedding,’ even though I had never shared my people photos with anyone; then came senior photos, and it just kind of fell in my lap really.”

Marquez said it went from being something she did as a hobby on the side to being a full-blown career.

“I remember thinking at one point, I needed to make a decision because I just couldn’t do both, with the photography being almost as full-time as my other job,” Marquez said. “So, I made my decision and I have been doing photography professionally for about 9 years now.”  

Marquez said one of her favorite parts of her job is traveling and seeing all the beautiful scenery in the world.

“My partner and I have been to so many beautiful places,” she said. “We have visited Iceland, Thailand, Germany, Mexico, Las Vegas, San Francisco, just shooting on locations. We go all over; it’s been fun to do that. These are some of the coolest places we have been in the world, just taking pictures.”  

Marquez said she had always had an interest in doing studio photography work, too, even though most of her photography had always been on location.

“Studio work is a lot different than shooting out in front of nature and in front of buildings,” she said. “I wanted to have a place that I could take people in out of the elements. Sometimes there just is not good weather here. My thoughts are of babies, you know children. Bringing people in from the cold was one reason I wanted the studio work, and cake smashes is another. Also, just the simplicity of the studio work, that’s why I opted for the brick and mortar. My partner Mike and I run the business together, and where I offer photography, he offers videography on his side, too. The studio will support both really well.”  

Marquez also spoke about her other business Fluid Space Wellness.

“This business is the primary reason that I wanted the building,” she said. “I have been seeing a lot of clients over Zoom for the wellness side. I had a lot of clients asking me if I had a location, an in-person space because a lot of people want support for their healing in person rather than online. So, I thought a lot about this and thought what if I do both photography and wellness in one place. That was the push though, to have an in-person comfortable space for people to come and see me.”  

Marquez went on to say that she is a master certified hypnotist, and she is master certified in timeline therapy. She also has various other certifications including collective reprocessing certification for trauma.

“What I do is I help people to identify their vision, their goals that they want out of life,” she said. “I help people to identify the obstacles that prevent them from reaching their goals, and then we come up with a plan to help them overcome and move toward the thriving life that they want. I take people from functional to thriving, that’s really my mission.” 

Marquez is excited about her businesses.

“I would like to thank the Monte Vista Chamber, the OptiMystics for coming to the ceremony, my parents, my business partner Mike, all my clients, and everyone in the community for supporting me,” she said.