Jackie

This past September, I was applying for a grant focused on portrait photography, so I recruited some of my friends to help me build my portfolio. I photographed people my age who are in this odd and uncertain time period categorized as our early twenties. Although the twenties are talked about as a golden and carefree era of our lives, I’ve found that they’re also full of instability and stress. Many of us don’t think beyond periods of 6 months because there is destined to be a move, or a career shift, or a change in our social networks. Personally, I often get overwhelmed by the uncertainty of it all. To cope with this I turn to photography. I’ve always used this medium as a tool for pause and reflection. For even the shortest burst in time, I can point to an image and say, “yes, this is me, and this is who I am, and this is what my life felt like at this point in time.” With this series, I wanted to capture a moment of pause amidst the chaos being of young and unsure. Each image of each subject captures a truth, and however brief it existed for it did once exist and these frames are proof.

I’m beginning this series with portraits I took of my friend Jackie. She means a lot of things to me, and each time I look at these photos I’m reminded of the way she moves through the world both gentleness and assertiveness that I admire.