Life, at the Intersection of Beauty and Struggle

I have spent an awful lot of time contemplating on who I want to be as a street photographer. Namely because I have gotten questions like, “what story are you looking to tell?”, “how do you want to integrate photography into my life as a whole?, and, “why were you even drawn to street photgraphy in the first place?”

Over time, I feel like I have come to an ethos that answers these questions, while also nicely encapsulating my identity, both with and without a camera in my hand:

Living (and capturing) life at the intersection of beauty and struggle.

You see, when I am walking out there in the that vast, busy, yet lonely world, and I bring the viewfinder to my eye, what I am really doing is searching for myself – or rather, searching for an understanding of my place in the world amongst everyone else out there traveling the streets.

As I have come to learn, my place has always seemingly existed at a crossroads, somewhere in between all of the good and all of the bad that life can give us:

Depression, anxiety, and disordered eating; a caring family, a well-developed support system, a loving four-legged companion; loneliness, awkwardness, and social anxiety; fitness, a successful career, and other constructive interests. In so many ways, my life has terered on the seam of juxtaposition.

But what I have learned, through time, experience, and observation, is that most folks live somewhere in that very same middle ground. Even the “happiest” and most “well-to-do” people struggle with something, and if not now, then they likely did at one time or another. Similarly, those that seem to have very little optimism left to hold onto – well, the sheer fact that they are finding a way to keep moving forward is its own kind of beautiful; a deep and profound one at that.

Because without struggle, there is no beauty. It takes the friction that comes with hardship – no, with survival – to see and appreciate the beauty that emanates from living life as it comes at us, from very simply traversing on through all of the good, the bad, and the ugly. Life’s journey, no matter where it goes – it is all beautiful.

As I have gotten older, I have begun to realize that this is my life’s work: to live (and ideally, thrive) in the place where two things in such strong opposition can actually be true at the same time – hardship and joy, stagnation and growth, love and loss, burden and peace. And, not just live there, but to capture it in every day life and share it with others – whether it be through my actions and relationships, or through my writings and photos.

Living and capturing life at the intersection of struggle and beauty.