Material: Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Baryta Glossy FineArt Paper,Hahnemuhle Photo Rag Paper,Hahnemuhle FineArt Paper
Serving as a visual diary, my photographic project Closer is an ongoing exploration of the tenderness and vulnerability existing within interpersonal connection. After contracting Lyme disease at the age of 11 years old, I spent 5 years of my adolescence inconsistently attending school and often bedridden. This altered my social experience, limiting the depths of my relationships. After being cured and returning to high school for my junior year, it was as if I’d been born into a 17-year-old body. I finally began to experience and understand the intensity and tenderness that was possible within relationships. Connection became a cherished honor, something to document out of a desire for preservation. I realized I was driven by the act of becoming closer. The works in this project capture the tactile and emotional quality of these gentle moments, where my subject and I are witnesses to one another’s authenticity. My photographic ritual is an active practice celebrating the act of growing closer.
The titular image from my series Closer is a sincere depiction of the intimacy and desire that brings us closer. A tactile image, it visually describes the comfort and quiet that is born from vulnerability between two hearts.
