Place

“I’d rather be hated for who I am than loved for who I am not.” People always talk about the difficulty of the stage of your life where you are “finding yourself”. But I would argue that knowing yourself is actually harder. As a young person who hasn’t quite ascertained exactly who they are or what they expect from life, the statement “ignorance is bliss” is a sentiment that rings true. The older you get, the more you learn about yourself, your values and standards, and how to be a person that makes you happy. Along with these realizations comes the rude awakening that these things differ greatly among the people around you. Suddenly, there is more that you object to, more to disagree upon amongst others, more for people to dislike about you. Suddenly, the world around you seems different, and your place among it unclear. While your sense of self has been strengthened, your sense of place and belonging has diminished. Some find confidence in this self-discovery and are left feeling defiant and ready to face what is ahead with a new perspective, others feel insecure, uncertain and lost. By making environmental portraits of people near the typical age of this experience, I intend to address this idea of place and belonging, as well self. Harsh, tentative, awkward, dramatic. These are all words that can be associated with this experience and therefore are qualities I intend to embody in my work.