Specifically this semester, I’ve explored and delved into so many parts of myself inside and outside of the studio. With Las Fotos Project, I was able to not only explore new forms of self-expression through art but also myself. I believe my focus was exploring my relationships. As I learned, connection with others has always been very important for me but deciding which are healthy and which are holding me down is something very prevalent in my photobook. Above all I’ve learned to have a relationship with myself. I question, “what do I truly want?” because I’ve noticed that I struggled to really understand who I was, but I’m growing with who I am. The LFP (Las Fotos Project) community was able to release these questions and emotions I carried within myself and I was able to express myself in exciting ways.
the Eye of the Beholder, 2022
I never thought I would have had a connection with a plant. Let alone flowers from this cactus.
Everyday, either on my way out of the house early in the morning or coming up my stairs returning home in the evening, inviting and triumphant, this cactus would greet me with thriving Night Cereuses.
Enchanting as this flower was to wildlife and myself, these flowers only survive for no more than 48 hours. Closing itself, encapsulating it's beauty. Then falling into the soil where this plant began.
Carrying this significance, this flower typically blooms from June to October. I had the pleasure to indulge myself and my photography from late July to early December.
Throughout my childhood to young adulthood, I have had a difficult relationship with my biological father.
Throughout my adolescence, I had to grow up quickly and take responsibility for actions that were not mine. In order to find an outlet to cope I struggled with drug and alcohol abuse, which caused disordered eating and drastic weight loss. But a positive that came was my art and my photography.
In this past semester, I closed my relationship with my father. I walked away from this relationship because it is my time to heal.