Florence, Italy

Studio Art Centers International

My photos attempt to convey mundane details I find appealing; the way the light is reflecting off the puddle on the street, a lonely bag of trash. This challenge, finding the beautiful in the ordinary, is real. It’s how my eyes see the world everyday and photography is a way to record these moments almost exactly as I experience them, creating a type of historical record.

During a year I spent in Florence, Italy, I began taking a series of photographs with a darker tonal range. I am drawn to these barren scenes for a reason, even though it seemed an unconscious impulse that drove me to click the shutter.

Thinking about my experience now, I connect my attraction for the empty and lonely to New Mexico, where I have grown up since birth. I am from rural Northern New Mexico, a place without many people, dirt roads, and dark, starry night skies. Living in Florence was a completely different experience; a small city, packed with people and narrow streets. The feeling of claustrophobia overcame me at times and affected my subconscious, drawing me to find these barren scenes that became this series.