hallo

I’ve thought about making this website for quite some time. For various reasons I knew it was the right idea. For one, I think my photos are better appreciated when viewed larger and in context with one another, something a website can accommodate. Two, I don’t enjoy the form factor of Instagram or other social media all that much, mostly as a primary means of sharing. Of course I use them and will continue to but the photos are often small and the quality compressed, its ethos doesn’t invite slowness when viewing images. I want something slow-paced and wider in form. With the architecture of a website the narrative and temporal qualities of photography are better communicated. But the creative process is often beset by fear and imposter syndrome. Many times they halted my best intentions, sometimes overtly and brash, sometimes subtle and unnoticed with the most fascinating of distractions, undermining my motivation to make with a mix of doubt, comparison, and internal editors. On and on it went. Nearly two years, hemming and hawing, deliberating, finding reasons not to start. In time a whole novel’s worth of excuses accumulated. Yet the inspired push never truly recedes. It tugs, over and over, manifesting as joy when followed and angst when ignored. So finally, not long ago, I just started. I had to get over my shit, my fears and worries, and just make. Unsurprisingly, it wasn’t so bad.

Photography is very much a therapeutic and meditative practice for me. There are reasons — even if not fully articulated — that I have a constant need to carry a camera with me. In a basic sense, the world is endlessly fascinating, beautiful, and bizarre. But we have to pay attention. Or give attention. If given enough attention to almost anything, one can find, discover, or be gifted something intrinsically valuable to what presents itself to us. To see, to attend to the world, is dynamic, it’s active, it’s prolific. In relation to and in relationship with others the most valuable gift we give is our attention because in that space, through being seen, things can flourish. To care and attend to someone or something matters, it is affective. And so, through photography, walking city streets or coastal hills, I can engage with and attend to the world.

berlin october 2024