The journey that brought me here

Everyone has a journey, some series of events that brought them to who they were meant to be. In the form only true to me, mine was both just a little dramatic, and also involved a few actual journeys. From a small urban art school in Baltimore, Maryland to a isolate orphanage in the far flung northern Russia, to an even more remote village in Uganda, it's been one helluva ride. 

When people ask me how I got started in photography, I never feel like I have a great answer, because I feel like I have been living and breathing photography for as long as I can remember. When I was growing up, I would play kitchen just outside of my mom's darkroom as she developed her film. For my sixteenth birthday, I was given a little Canon point-and-shoot, and immediately became completely attached to it. I would take it everywhere with me and spent my lunch break at school taking portraits of my friends, which quickly led to shooting and developing film for practice and for fun. It didn't take long before I became the assistant to the sports photographer at my high school, and spent my weekends and evenings photographing any event possible. From there, it was an easy decision to apply to one of the top art schools in the country - I spent my entire junior year of high school constantly revising my portfolio, through every class. Going to art school, I was sure, was what I needed to launch this career that I already loved. However, as soon as I arrived on MICA's urban campus, I knew it wasn't going to be that for me. I instantly got frustrated with the idea of "learning art" - art was something to be practiced, studied yes, but also was too personal to learn from a book. I do strongly believe in constantly perfecting your craft; however, I quickly found that I don't agree with anyone else telling you what exactly your craft was. I earned my first ever D in my freshman Photography class, where my professor told me that my work was somewhere between fashion photography and documentary photography, and that I wouldn't get anywhere without deciding which one I wanted to go with. Well, ten years later, and it turns out that one of the biggest strengths in my work is being able to seamlessly marry the two.

As soon as I realized that art school wasn't for me, I began to look for other options. I knew that, eventually, I wanted to go back to school, but before doing so I wanted to learn about the world outside the bubble I had always know. The summer after my freshman year, I was lucky enough to fly to Russia and spend a month photographing for a non-profit, helping them raise funds and awareness for handicapped orphanages in the northern region. Once I got home from that trip, I felt like I had found something that set my soul on fire, and shortly after I bought a one way ticket to Uganda. During my time living on a mission base in Uganda, I was lucky enough to capture the most beautiful stories from the most inspiring and beautiful people I've met in my life. I got to travel around eastern Africa, hearing stories and documenting everything I saw, walking barefoot down miles and miles of dusty red roads, and reading Hemmingway by the mouth of the Nile. It was the most magical time in my life, and while a huge part of me wanted to tear up my passport and never come home, the other part of me knew that there was still more to do. After a year and some change of living in a small Ugandan village, I came back home with incredible memories, and a deeply set passion for hearing and telling stories.

Once I got back, through a whirlwind of different paths and decisions, I was lucky enough to find myself as a photographer for the local Lululemon store, where I got to learn about what truly created an unshakable brand, and how many different elements went into telling a strong story. After a few amazing years working with and learning from them, I knew it was time to break out on my own. In the six years that I've owned my photography business full time, I've gotten to expereience and learn more than I ever could have dreamed - I've traveled through Europe, South America, and even back to Africa a few times. I've gotten to learn from and shoot with some incredible industry leaders, most recently Greg Finck. I've gotten to hone and perfect and love and celebrate my craft in ways that I never could have dreamed, and I've gotten to tell the stories of the most loving, joy-filled, and awe-inspiring people along the way. 

I truly cannot imagine loving what I do any more, and I work hard to make that contagious passion shine through in every single image I create. I hope to be able to bring it to your story as well.