5/30/2026
Hello y’all. I hope you’ve been doing well. Sorry I missed last week, my best friend Andy was in town so I decided to forego the blog and spend some quality time with him and some other friends. These last couple of weeks have been pretty hard, anxiety and stress along with a series of unfortunate events not going my way have certainly gotten the better of me and it has started leaking into my personal life. BUT, I am doing my best getting my head back into a good place despite everything that has been happening and I hope y’all are doing the same for yourselves. Today I wanted to talk a bit about my most recent photography in Chicago, or at least some thoughts I have had while completing some grant-writing and open call submissions.
Ever since graduation I have been very split between documenting everyday life in the street, or I guess “street photography” even though I hate the term. And a more traditional style of documentary/landscape photography. A lot of this division has to do with the ebb and flow of emotion I have, gravitating towards slower work when I’m feeling more mellow and the faster work when I have the energy for it. In turn, the photos I have been making in Chicago over the past few years have turned into two distinct bodies of work whereas originally I thought I could make them synthesize in some sort of way. I am leaning towards treating the faster street documentation as an ongoing project of personal moments I was drawn to, possibly finding a combination of images that work together in many more years (similar to the work of Winogrand, Adams, or Maier). But the more methodical medium format project in Chicago alleyways is still very perplexing to me.
I have traipsed in and out of many projects these last three years, from black and white nighttime images like a monochromatic Todd Hido, to basketball artifacts, ultimately leading to me just exploring the myriad of weird and unique landscapes in Chicago’s alleyways. I have been so unfocused that I often would get down on myself for not sticking to a particular idea or having a specific direction. Recently I was submitting to a random open call and kept thinking about a much too broad project I sort of ended during my senior year of college in which I just wanted to take photographs of things that I found interesting, essentially thinking that this wasn’t a project as much as an escape. I think that is what a lot of my photographs are though. They are a way for me to latch my brain onto some weird and utterly entirely human fragment of life. Something that is and could only be the doing of another human. They are depictions of a world steeped in sonder (the realization that everyone in the world has a large and various story of their own). Now I still have to figure out how to show this in the photos, either through formal technique, arrangement, or writing. But, I am glad I was able to have at least a little epiphany in order to keep going.
Thank you so much for reading and wish me luck getting back into a better swing of things these next few weeks. Drink your water, get your steps in, and protect your friends, family, and neighbors. I love y’all!
Flower Man in Downtown Chicago
