Leslie Ray, Founder, Atelier 27 Press

Leslie made the leap to France at the age of 50 to breathe life into her creative dreams. With little more than her strong desire to live in the light of the place that had drawn artists for decades, she realized that she didn't really have 'enough French to get by' as she had previously thought. Survival took over shortly after her arrival. With the fortunate invitation to develop a private psychotherapy practice working with Anglophones and university students, she invested her energy in learning French, finding her way in a different culture, developing her private practice, and navigating the French bureaucracy to keep her little French life afloat. Her practice included consulting on cultural adjustment, developing a study abroad wellness program, and a happy side gig of teaching Intro to Fine Art Photography for an American university.

But twelve years later, she still had creative dreams to pursue and couldn't quite figure out how to get that done in France. So the decision was made to return to California and atelier 27 press was launched with a perpetual calendar book and a line of photographic greeting cards finding their way into a growing list of retail locations throughout the US.

Though based in California, she returns to France as regularly as possible to add images to her French Collection of photographs - and stash words into her vocabulary in the ongoing pursuit of the language.

Website: www.atelier27press.com

Twitter: @atelier27press