From the start of my childhood to the present moment, I have always been captivated by the act of image making. The images that I take are how I view the world every day. Finding beauty in naturality, in light, in color, in love. I’m always taking note of the things that draw me in and inspire me to create. This past semester, I’ve spent a lot of time photographing my friends in their respective living spaces. This project resulted in some of my best imagery I’ve taken. I’ve spent a lot of time focusing on fashion photography here at Columbia, so for this series I wanted to strip down my processes and really focus on what truly inspires me; life. I hold all of my friends so close to me and to be able to take such an extremely close look into each of their lives has been beautiful. Even with the craziness and unpredictability of the past couple years, I was still able to connect with these people and converse about art. The pandemic. About politics. The city. And about all these new experiences of adulthood, of growth, of change, of humanity. Being able to document each of these personalities as I’ve connected with them has been a blessing for me and my art.