I have considered myself to be a documentarian for quite some time now. Ever since I can remember, I always carried a camera with me wherever I went. When I was really young, it was using disposal cameras on every family vacation, and when digital cameras finally were created during my elementary school days, I brought it to every school basketball game, friend’s birthday party, and classic sleepover I went to. I loved observing those around me from behind the lens, especially strangers. I still remember going to Kings Island (a large amusement park in my hometown, Cincinnati) and sitting on park benches just people watching and photographing the pass-byers. I was captivated by the unknown stories about who these people were and what their life story was. I bought a Flip Cam in 2008, and since then started introducing videography into my life. I upgraded to a DSLR in high school, and would film street festivals and concerts, and even created a super amateur documentary about 18 Random Acts of Kindness I did on my 18th I am a CaPA scholar for photography and initially thought for my final project I was going make a “The Real Lafayette: Leopards After Hours” documentary about my dorm-mates and so even though I have no actual edited content, I have a lot of raw video footage of my friends from freshmen year.
This past semester I was abroad in Paris and able to take a photography studio course in which we chose a theme to work on throughout the semester. I have always been interested in learning more about those experiencing homelessness who live on the streets, but had always been too afraid to gather the courage to just talk to people, hear their story, and take their photograph until this course. Talking to the people on the streets of Paris was an extra level of difficulty because I had to converse in French, but with some graceful pushing from my studio assistant, I was out the door and had several rolls of film of various France inhabitants. In addition to those experiencing homelessness, I really enjoy all sorts of photojournalism related to social justice issues. It sounds cliché, but a photograph really does tell 1,000 words and I love that documentary can tell even more with the combination of narrative and photos. With documentary, I hope to be able to help give a mic to those who want to raise their voice and express their opinions but have been unable to do this do to factors outside of their own control.