Relaxation: Although my educational background is largely contained within religious academics, I started and still continue, my photographic pursuits as a relaxing means for me to step outside of the often consuming cloud of academic study, work, and the anxieties of everyday life. I love photography because it requires me to physically and mentally relocate myself into an observational perspective. This is very relaxing because photography does not demand the accompanying baggage to which I am accustomed within religious academic study. So often, the value of one’s life is determined by what we create, construct, or impose onto our surrounding contexts or circumstances. For me, photography represents a distinct departure from this cultural norm because it attends to what is already present. Although art is about conceptual display and the constructed portrayal of one’s inspiration, photography means to attend more to the audience’s perspective instead of the artist’s. Because of this, it is relaxing insofar as it allows for intentional escape from the varied anxious forces with which we all wrestle day by day.
Representation: As I began to find tranquility in the midst of ‘photo-walks,’ haphazard journeys through surrounding areas accompanied by my imagination and camera, I discovered that the photographic style I most enjoyed was distinctly journalistic. In an era when the term ‘journalism’ has been co-opted by editorial, adversarial, or commercial forces, my photographic style is one that seeks to let the subject speak for itself. The important thing in photography, for me, is to genuinely represent how the subject presented itself naturally or felt within its native context.
I find photography to be a relaxing pursuit that takes one outside of oneself. Depending on the context where I find myself behind a camera, I enjoy being taken into a variety of photographic circumstances. It is important for me to capture those moments of relaxation and exploration in such a way that allows my photographic subjects to represent themselves. Attending to what is already present, I hope that my photography will allow others to feel a sense of wonder, relaxation, and exploration.
