About

I didn’t really start photography until I left my beautiful home in the Pacific Northwest to serve a mission on the Navajo Reservation. Everybody used to say that the reservation was “just a load of brown dirt”. That upset me. How could people overlook the beautiful vibrant people and the amazing natural landscape? I started taking photographs as a way to share that beauty with others. Light, composition, and camera became necessary tools to help me share the desert’s story.

While attending college, I was hit with a deep wave of depression. It was during this extremely dark period of my life that photography became a way to constructively escape. It gave me a sense of purpose that academics never had. Going into the nearby mountains allowed me to reset and heal, and photography was my motivation for getting out there.

In 2016 I felt strongly that I needed to get away. School had drained me to a level I never thought possible. So instead of going straight into the workforce, I took a job overseas teaching English in China. I wanted to travel (having never done so) but I didn’t just want to see the tourist hot spots, I wanted to see everyday life. I wanted to be a part of something different and I wanted to get the photographs that no one else was getting.

China was hard, especially for my first country outside of North America. But every day after teaching, I would grab my camera and head out in search of something new. On weekends and holidays I would pick something on the map and jump on a train. An isolated monastery? that sounds amazing! a random mountain village? you bet! I would ask locals for their recommendations and they would point me toward some truly amazing places.

After China I traveled around the globe: first to Japan then across Russia to France, England, Scotland, and Iceland. All the while I took photographs, planning my journey around the weather, sleeping in hostels, tents, and my car if needed. I don’t think that I’ve ever felt so alive or so happy. I had finally found a sense of purpose again.

So here I am, at the end of a period of darkness. It’s fitting that photography literally means “writing with light”. I guess that’s what I’m doing now: seeking light wherever it can be found and sharing that light with whoever needs it.