It all began with a squint…

It all began with a squint. I was nine years old the first time I held up a Yashica FX-2 to my eye and saw the way light looked through that ground glass. How the focus ring turned and the images transformed from blurry shapes to crisp subjects. How the light somehow looked like it never had before. I had zero idea what a Yashica was, but I knew I was about to find out, and change the trajectory of the rest of my life while doing so.

My brother had just received a Canon AE-1 camera with his confirmation when he turned thirteen, and naturally, I wanted a camera too. After endlessly bothering my brother to use his camera, and him repeatedly yelling no and pushing me out of his room, my parents finally caved. It was a summer morning in late August when my dad finally broke down and gave my ten dollars to buy a used SLR camera at a garage sale. I had spent more than a few hours looking through my brothers camera, and it was so exciting. That rectangle square framing the world around me. Showing me what I wanted to look at. For the first time, the world felt like it was mine to take in. To capture. To keep parts of it frozen in time to share the journey of where I went, and what I had seen. I did not know yet what it felt like to feel so alive when I finally brought my very own camera up to my face for the first time. I squinted, I leaned in for a closer look. I focused the lens. I pressed the button and heard that unmistakable ca-chunk of the shutter. I knew I was hooked. Even at nine years old, I felt like I was set free that day.