allow me to reintroduce myself (kind of)

Visual Essay

Aug 11

This isn’t really an introduction, if you’re here, you probably know me already lol. Buttttt this IS an introduction of these photos and this website. What’s crazy is, I took these in the fall of 2022, which is also the same time I started the web development process for this site. The idea was to shoot photos that felt in line with where I was at the moment and also fit the vibe of the site. While there’s a few photographers I love that specialize in color, Breyona aka Exquiste Eye was the perfect choice for this shoot. Thank you Bree!

Let’s go back to the fact I’ve been sitting on this site and these photos for YEARSSSSSS. Doing things like that is a very bad habit of mine. There’s major projects I’ve never fully spoken or posted about, orrrr I talked about it once and never revisit them. I know folks love to say “you’re only as good as your last project” as a way to continuously look forward… but I’m not aligned with that way of thinking anymore. All of my shit is good… past, present, and future. I reserve the right to reach back and push foward as I please.

“All of my shit is good… past, present, and future.”

I almost made the decision to never publish these photos or publicly announce that I have a new website. I thought “its too late” “I don’t have that hair anymore” “people won’t care” but at the end of the day, it all routes back to my creative expression and what I want to do. Plus I still look the same, with a few additional pounds, lol. While this post is mainly about the photos (I might do another post on the bts of my site) there’s a few points that I want to drive home, for whoever is reading this, and myself.

Number 1: Our art and creativity feels precious because it is, but maybe we shouldn’t hold on to things so tightly. Hoarding your creative energy and art defeats the purpose, you have to release to create.

To know me is to know I really admire Tyler the Creators creativity. He recently did an interview on Hot 97 to discuss his new album and during the interview he mentioned why he decided to put this project out so quickly vs his usually process of being superrr meticulous. I recommend listening, but he said that sometimes creatives can create their own handcuffs by making their art TOO precious, which usually leads to overthinking, never putting the art out, or being like me and waiting years.

Number 2: There are no rules, everything is made up. I know everything is about algorithms, best times to do whatever… but in reality you can do whatever, whenever. You can post about a project 3 years later. I had coffee with a friend Sunday (shoutout to Kay) and we were like yo, we’re on a floating rock paying for resources, we have a crazy president, they say the aliens are coming in November, its a genocide happening, and there was a tsunami the other week…. DO WHAT YOU WANT, WHO TF CARES. Mind you, I’m talking to myself here, lol.

There are no rules, everything is made up.

Now I swear I had a third point, but now that it’s time to write it I forgot lollll. I guess I’m on theme with the subject of this post, because I didn’t preplan this blog entry, I just opened the text box and started writing, lol. These are all in the moment thoughts.

Anywayyyy….there’s so much that’s been on my mind and I’m really excited that I’ve finallyyyy carved out a creative space that feels safe to get my shit off. If you can take one thing away from this post (aside from my cute photos) please remember that life is short, express yourself while you can. If the space doesn’t exist, create it.

In conclusion, welcome to my world.