This project was the culmination of a years’ worth of photography and development that shed light on my own understanding of the world as well as insight into the lives of others. Photographing people has always been a passion of mine. I have always been fascinated with the individual differences of people’s worldview as well as their cultures and traditions. With a background in psychology from SUNY Binghamton, I have always wanted to try and capture the intricacies of human body language and try to add a psychological component to my pictures, to capture a feeling rather than a person. This project is the culmination of everything that photography means to me as a person, a means of telling a story, a means of spreading love, a means of self-understanding.

 

             I have always admired the great street photographers like Garry Winogrand and Henry Cartier Bresson. But I have also largely been influenced by the works of contemporary artists Lee Jeffries and @rawfile_, photographers who are known for their extremely intimate and close up portraits of the homeless. These artists offer a very personal and psychologically revealing look at the minds of these people and to this day I aim to emulate their style to some degree with all of my work. However there is one major difference between these artists and myself, being that I live in a distant suburb of the city, too far removed to ever truly feel an authentically sympathetic connection to these people while photographing them. Simply put, I couldn't bring myself to photograph these people with an expensive camera, without feeling like I was taking advantage of them or taking a part of their dignity.

 

              What initially began as a collection of street portraits, slowly progressed into a series of moments, both personal and distant, that capture a feeling that most people can relate to, yet is almost ephemeral in today’s world. The pictures you see before you are the product of much personal growth as both an artist and a person, that aim to capture a concept that is ubiquitous yet fleeting. To provide a journey through the human affect, touching on both tragedy and joy. To leave the viewer feeling at peace with themselves, and to find solace in moments of their own.

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