The other day, I was reflecting on my desire for creating art while in conversation with a friend. There have been moments when I’ve contemplated stopping altogether. Many times, I’ve resigned myself to months of waiting before snapping a single image. I’ve been taking photos for so long now that it’s bound to happen—yet I always seem to come back to it. It’s confusing, even for me, why the creation of a single image has slithered it’s way into my soul.
These past five months in Brazil have been deeply meaningful. It’s strange how love and heartache can draw out such profound emotions, yet my time here has ignited something within me that has been waiting to be resurrected. I believe these images reflect that. They are more than simple aesthetic choices—they are intertwined with my psyche in ways I can’t fully explain. Sometimes, I surprise myself with the obscurity of the final results. There’s a certain dark artifice that emerges when I shoot, and I feel fortunate to have found collaborators who want to share in this emotional exchange.
Today, I was rereading Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet. He writes:
“A work of art is good if it has arisen out of necessity. That is the only way one can judge it. So, dear Sir, I can’t give you any advice but this: to go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows; at its source you will find the answer to the question of whether you must create.”
And this is what I must do—with various mediums, in various capacities, with different people and in different situations. I see all decisions in my life as their own unique creations. They are not compartmentalized expressions; they are part of an ongoing conversation I am constantly having with myself and the world around me. To me, this is what it means to be an artist. To truly live, breathe, feel, listen, observe, and express. No moment is insignificant. Everything has meaning, and everything can be observed as such. In this way, life is constantly giving. The good and the bad both challenge our perspective—to think more deeply, to feel more honestly. What a great joy it is to be alive.
Outstanding work 🙏