like night and day.

Model: Brielle.
Morristown, NJ.

She doesn't wait around for life; instead, she makes her own magic out of nothing. She makes her own light in the dark spaces, like nobody I've seen before. She believes in music and that songs could change your life. Maybe, even your very soul. She'd rather wander lost in new places than sit inside all day. She's like a dream and I'm hooked onto every word she says.

Like night and day, she glows like the sun; and like the moon, she illuminates the night.

I think that real angels might hide in stranger places than we would ever think to look, but they're out there, waiting with their hands out and ready to take us in.

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.

And like a song on repeat......

Some 7 years ago or longer: This isn't living on the edge, an adventure; it's diving into certain oblivion. This is what we were, running around in a circle. You drained every bottle in sight, as I got stoned through the night. We talked about everything old and our wishes for everything new. We talked of everything we were hoping for. But really, we were doing nothing and getting nowhere. The misery found comfort in us and we found comfort in the misery. Every day felt too long as every night became the same story over again.
3am, hazy eyed, we fall in love again pretending everything's alright until we wake up again drowning in regrets. And like a song on repeat - get by through the day as best as we can and I'll see you later and it'll all play out the same all over.

I think of how I all of a sudden miss the seemingly, never ending, cloud of smoke that's always surrounding you.
Please, send me postcards from wherever you've been.
Give me phone calls, your voice, something real. 
7:38am, while drinking coffee, as you light up your morning smoke or anytime well into the nights, slurred words and all.
Remind me there's more to all of this.
More than only what I know of.
Some people are just home; no matter where or how or what's going on.

I'm just
a train wreck,
trying to
make the best
of it all.

*Wandering the streets of NYC.
Summer 17.

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.