Photography has come and go a few times in my life. I remember picking up a camera to photograph my friends and family while in university, mostly to document my life. I never saw it as a form of creative expression. I was simply a fly on the wall, documenting.
After school, I had to sell all of my gear because I was poor and needed the money to survive. It wasn't until almost 10 years later that I purchased another camera since my mother-in-law was visiting my wife and I in Toronto for the first time. Again, I wanted to document her trip. That was in the summer of 2019.
In 2020 when the world fell apart and everybody was in lockdown, I started to take the camera out on my daily walks to take photos of anything. I became interested in street photography and particularly black and white street photography. I always had an appreciation for portrait work, especially from the likes of Annie Liebovitz, Richard Avedon, and Steve McCurry. After a few failed attempts at shooting and not connecting with my own portrait work, I went back to the drawing board and began writing little snippets of stories to accompany my portrait sessions. I incorporated what I learned about Street Photography and Creative Writing and incorporate them into all of my portrait work. I find this much more fulfilling then simply taking portraits of people and I hope that my work invokes a sense of wonder in those who look at it.
