It’s certainly not a radical idea to claim that photography is not the truth, as it once was viewed to be. With this in mind, I always have two goals in mind with my personal work. First, and above all, is that I want to have an end product that is visually interesting and appealing. Color is always something I pay attention to, as well as shape and form. I remember a major turning point in my photography was when, one time, I was looking at a photo of a small island out on a lake that I’d taken, and I realized that what drew me to it was not the island itself, but simply the shape it occupied within the landscape of rippling lake water. From that point on, my photos were rarely about what was within the frame, and rather focused on the shapes they formed within the 2D space of the photo.

Secondly, I do consider my personal work to be highly emotional. I’ve always felt that art-making in general is a way to bring inner thoughts and feelings out into a concrete sort of snapshot. Although my work may not explicitly evoke any emotions, I’m consistently most satisfied with the photos that I take when I am attuned to my emotions; I’m then able to listen to my instincts and “follow my heart”, so to speak. If something captures my attention, I’ll try photographing it in multiple ways and seeing what catches my eye after when I’m editing. Because of this, just as much, if not more, of my creative process happens after the photo is taken. This is when I decide what specific shots resonate with me the most. Due to the abstracted nature of most of my photography, a lot of this process harkens back to my first goal of creating something visually pleasing. After this comes the editing, and I have never been one to shy away from intense, highly transformative effects and techniques.

With that in mind, here are a select few of my photos that I felt capture my style well. I hope these are able to resonate with you as much as they do with me.