even in all the light, i'm still losing myself.

Model: Molly.
Manhattan, NYC.

I never felt as alive until I met you.
I also never felt as dead in my life.
As I watch the sky start to turn, light up another cigarette and wonder - what do I now?
What do I do with something I can't even understand myself?

Quick note: The other night, a great friend of mine asked what was with the photos I make - why the weird stances? Weird locations? Why/do I ever take normal photos of families or something? And all the such of that. While I know he supports me and has my back, I know he doesn't really understand what I do or my life choices and that's totally fine.
However, it did make me question things for a minute. While I already know that a lot of my work captures a strange mix of beauty and colors with underlying tones of what it is to be living with the things many people would rather not face. Things like the struggles of living with issues of depression, addiction, abuse, or anything that coincides with all of that.
The funny thing is, I don't really plan on going that way.
Actually, I never have too much of a plan to begin with. After everything is said and done - photos captured and edited and ready to go - I just go to work on it all and things just kind of go their own way. It was quite awhile of being frustrated on why, even when I tried to go other ways, it didn't feel right to me. I learned to not force it or question it anymore.
Today, I wouldn't have it any other way.
I think that this set is a perfect balance and representation of what it's like living with depression. The beautiful location of the bright pink building as the backdrop, but the overwhelming feeling of something being lost, or broken and isn't that what going through depression is? Or any of that? Surrounded by so much beauty and color in the world and knowing it, but still feeling so disconnected from it all. Like you're just a ghost trying to feel something, like you're stuck sleepwalking through life.

Daisy.

Beauty surrounds us everyday in every way, but we forget. We forget to look around us. We forget to see the small things. We forget to appreciate them. Life gets in the way and then we get in our own way. But, I think that if we can hold on to the littlest strand of hope -- I think that soon enough, we'll be reminded just how beautiful it all is.

Ft. Natalee
Chester, NJ

just a feeling in the wind.

Ft. Mandee

All of a sudden I felt like I was floating as I walked amongst giants. The lights all around felt more vibrant as they began to trail with every movement of my eyes. The ground began to move in every direction, holding on for dear life, a smile I couldn't resist as everything around me felt more alive and the sky.... oh, let this world devour me.
Just stuck in a moment of time - It's all a dream, a blur just passing by, just a feeling in the wind.


When I look back now,
I remember how we always fell fell apart in the best ways.