Mini Photobook Statement

Why are these images important?  How/why does this grouping help to tell the viewer who you are?

After watching my mind constantly run in loops for almost four years now, I feel like I'm finally looking at these destructive tendencies from the outside, in. It is not unusual for me to pick up on the negativity that surrounds me in daily life; my inner state is usually a mere reflection of how the outside world touches me. Because of this, I begin to reflect on myself in negative ways, questioning my own motives, capabilities, and significance as an individual. I notice that there are often negative feelings inside of me, and I start to believe that I'm not as pure and beautiful as I'd hope to be. Every time my thoughts move towards negativity or I don't feel emotionally optimistic and upbeat, I get angry and frustrated towards myself and feel as though there is something fundamentally wrong with me. I search for happiness in other people and outer situations, thinking that this will solve these issues, but the relief never stays and it feels like I'm drowning, without a voice (or a purpose). So I cut myself off from everything for a while, sit in one spot and focus on nothing at all, letting thoughts go as soon as they pop into my mind; I calm myself, realigning myself with inner peace and stillness. It is here where I feel the most expansive, the most free, with infinite potentiality. I separate myself from my identity, my rigid human form, and most importantly, my mind. And subtly, without noticing or reflecting on a specific moment in which it actually happens, I feel how big the universe actually is, and how breaking this expanse down into worries and trivial concerns only separates me from the place of pure potential and peace. Everything is going to be okay, I just have to allow it.


One may read the above statement while looking at my photobook, and notice the metaphors that each of these photos hold. While broken up into separate pages (or moments), when I find my inner stillness there is no separation anymore, no definitive answer to anything, no conception of time or right and wrong. Therefore, the lessons at the end fill my existence up all at once and I feel full with peace and optimism, and like before, infinite potentiality. I would hope that this photobook allows someone to reflect on a human's tendency to move towards instability, face it, and see how they have the power to turn the process around by relaxing and feeling their existence from the inside.