When I photograph people I invite them to spaces where we can be alone: my home, a park, a backyard. By engaging with them in a place where they feel comfortable, I am able to converse with them on a personal level, and observe the expressions they give me when they listen, sigh, reflect, and engage. Because photography naturally creates vulnerability, my camera has become a vehicle that allows me to delve deeper, to stare longer. I look to document our time together, our dialogue. I ask how the day went or what the individual wants to give to the world and we develop a conversation. I fall in love with the honesty of their expression and I sincerely care about who they are, who we are. I want the world to see what happens when I put a camera in between us- how the conversation we have transforms into a 1/60th of a second. I try to capture a pivotal expression or gesture the subject gives me within that dynamic pause. It is authentic, it is raw, it is real- it discloses an experience between subject and photographer, giver and receiver. They stare into my lens and I stare right back. The photograph is evidence.

Published in "Substance of Fire: Gender & Race in the College Classroom" / 2018