Artist Statement
I graduated from Otterbein University with a degree in photography, and minors in journalism and nature studies. Prior to college, I had never really traveled before, however, throughout, I was very blessed with some truly remarkable experiences around the world and the United States. I lived in Malawi with a host family for several weeks, studied art history in Spain for a month, represented my university as a TA at Shanghai Publishing and Printing College in Shanghai, China for a semester, worked the last two summers in Glacier National Park in Montana, and rode Amtrak around the perimeter of the U.S. the summer before my senior year; completing my first big individual project. Through all this, I absolutely fell in love with traveling, meeting people, being out of my comfort zone, and documenting all the included experiences and discoveries.
Flash forward, COVID hit, graduation canceled, travels canceled, plans canceled. Though very unfortunate, I believe I grew the most, both as a traveler/photographer, and as a person, during those initial several months. I had always been passionate about enjoying nature and appreciating your home and what it has to offer; focusing on this for much of my photographic work while at Otterbein. Doing series on nature deficit disorder, how there’s beauty to be found everywhere – even in “boring old Ohio” – and finishing with my senior exhibition on trash and pollution in our local state park/watershed. Then, being left with no option but my own home and local area to travel, I started looking for ways to achieve those feelings and experiences of wonder and discovery previously gained via traveling, by forcing myself to change the way I viewed my home, and the situation.
Largely inspired by British writer and adventurer, Alastair Humphreys, I began focussing a ton on what it means to live adventurously. Making the most of your life and situation no matter the circumstances or location. This has driven me to wake up for more sunrises, catch more sunsets, take weekend trips down to the National Forest (or weekday campouts in the woods down by the creek,) and to get creative within my parameters. Creating local "expeditions" like crossing Ohio via bicycle, backpacking the perimeter of our local reservoir, and inventing an adventure triathlon with my brother. Making short films for each, I sought to achieve the excitement, adventures and inspiration that great films like Free Solo, Meru, Into the Wild, and the like provide, but on a very local level.
The goal of such documentation is to inspire others to get out and try new things, get lost, act goofy in public, whatever it is that gives you a fire to live. The idea of hitting 80 years old and looking back on life with regret terrifies me. For this reason, I swim in lakes if they look tempting, play in the rain if it looks refreshing, engage in conversations if they seem daunting, and anything else that one wouldn’t do by just coasting through life.
I love nature, and I love people. And I believe that, like landscapes, every person has unique beauties and resources to provide and appreciate. That we should view these differences in people as we do the differences in the earth; beautiful and exciting. Just as the varying elements of landscapes provide the earth with different environments, and us with different adventures, the varying elements of lifestyles and experiences of people should provide us with different perspectives and understandings of the individual as a whole. With travel and life opening back up, I now seek to combine these new passions and discoveries of living adventurously, no matter where you are, with the sheer value and power of individuals and their stories.