BEHIND the lens

I’ve been chasing frames my whole life. From the darkroom days of high school as yearbook photo editor, through the point-and-shoot era and the freeing (and sometimes frustrating) onslaught of mobile photography, the tools have changed dramatically. My instinct hasn’t.

I’m drawn to people caught inside their world. The worker lost in a task. The figure dwarfed by architecture. The moment of stillness inside the noise. Call it “The Absorbed.” It’s the thread that runs through every image I make, whether I’m on a street in Tokyo, a staircase in Paris, or a ridgeline in the Atacama. Just as often, the one absorbed is me.

I didn’t learn to see this way on my own. Cartier-Bresson and Koudelka taught me where to stand. Skateboarding and hip-hop taught me what to look for. I spent a big part of my youth on a board, and it rewires how you see a city: a staircase is a challenge, a handrail is an invitation, a ledge is a stage. Hip-hop got to me at ten and never let go. It taught me that you can build something new out of what’s already lying around, that one word can carry two meanings, and that the view from the margins is way more interesting.

Sometimes it’s chance. Sometimes patience. Sometimes it’s quiet, funny, or both. Whatever it is, it’s right where I want to be.