Its very simple.
I am not the best writer. I suck at it in my opinion. And I believe that I don’t have to be a good writer in order to show my work, or to be a photographer. As my good friend and fellow photographer Rog Walker says, ‘Photography has become the way I communicate’, I now know what he was talking about when I first heard him say that. The more that I learn, and the more I grow as a photographer the more I want to get out of the way when I am displaying my work for the world to see. I don’t want to tell you how you should view my work. I don’t want to tell you how you should feel when you view my work. We each bring our own story, our own failures and victories, our own pain and tragedy with us when we view someones work. That has been the biggest revelation the past year and a half since embarking on this journey that is street photography. All of the beautiful, good, bad, and shitty things that I have been through in my life, is radically affecting what I do with my camera, and how I see the world. For the longest time I tried to not let what I am going through in my personal life affect what I do with my camera. I was trying to leave my personal life at home when I was working for a client or shooting a passion project. I didn’t want that part of my life to get in the way. However, I believe that mentality that I had for so long, was so wrong, when it comes to photography. The reason I have been able to evoke so much emotion in my photographs is because I am allowing myself to feel when that camera is in my hands. I constantly strive to let my guard down emotionally, I strive to notice the unnoticeable, and I strive to recognize the unlikely. There is so much beauty out there in our neighborhoods, in our streets, and in the streets abroad.
Street photography makes me feel alive. Its so hard. Its so challenging. I haven’t mastered it. And probably never will, but I know that this love for documenting moments on the street is something I will be working on everyday for the rest of my life.
Shooting the streets of Kenya was so challenging, yet so rewarding. Getting to interact with the Kenyan people was an absolute dream. They were, and still are to this day, some of the nicest people I have ever met. Which makes this collection of work some of my favorite because I am brought back to so many beautiful encounters with the people of Kenya. I am excited to return to them someday. But for now, here is what I saw.
