These are from a session that took place nearly a year ago, and I never got around to sharing them. Life gets in the way, doesn't it? Until something comes along and shakes you to your core, makes you question everything you ever knew, believed, and felt, demands that you halt and bring focus to what matters, to your why, to who you are and who you want to be.

What matters to me is family, be they blood or chosen. And forgiveness. And grace. And acceptance. And above all, kindness.

My why is more challenging to define. Perhaps the best word for it would be depth. I want to dive deep into the realness of life, experience it with all of my being in its rawest form. I don't want a curated life that sparkles on the outside and shoves the good stuff under a haze of subconsciousness, nor do I want to believe that bad deeds equate to bad people. I want to get dirty, to know the depths of life's shadows along with the light, and see beneath the cruelty in this world to the hurt and beauty that lies at its core.

My lens gives me a means of learning who I am, as I pay attention to where I'm drawn to point it. I study the images I create, and in those that make me feel something, I find my answers.