Each time I take a photograph, I make a series of intentional choices— the angle, light, distance, subject, setting. These choices are shaped not only by my time behind the lens taking pictures, but my enduring commitment to philosophical exploration, an unshakeable curiosity in human psychology, as well as the broader landscape of my life experience – including the impact of my parents’ divorce, experiencing love and loss in relationships, and solo-backpacking across more than 20 countries. Photography helps me understand not just what I see, but allows me to reflect on how I see.
Central to my approach to photography can be found in Kant. I became intrigued by his idea that we never experience the world “as-it-is-in-itself”, separate from our active contribution. Photography, for me, is a way of wrestling with that idea —not by documenting objective reality, but by revealing the very lenses through which we perceive it. It becomes a form of inquiry—a way of showing that we are not merely passive observers, but rather active participants in constructing meaning.
With this in mind, when I take photographs, I’m particularly drawn to capturing people whose circumstances seem to carry the multiplicity of questions —those suspended between roles, identities, or moments of clarity, whose being in the world feels subtly charged with meaning. I aim to position the subject within their environment so that the composition doesn’t just frame them; it helps define them. The surroundings therefore become an extension of the subject’s inner world, providing context and definition to the fleeting moment. In this way, while life inevitably continues to flow with the passing of time, photography allows me to engage with the world on my own terms.
Ultimately, my hope is that my work invites viewers to reflect on their own ways of seeing and being seen—to feel, even briefly, the weight of their own participation in shaping reality. Just as a meaningful photograph emerges by staying open to the unexpected, I aim to approach this program with the same spirit of curiosity and responsiveness. Rather than arriving with fixed expectations, I want to be shaped by the experience—ready to learn not only how to take better photographs, but how to better pay attention.
