Girlhood

Girlhood is an ongoing photographic project that examines the layered, often overlooked realities of growing up as a girl in America. Rather than treating femininity as a singular or universal experience, the project foregrounds the ways cultural, religious, and social contexts shape how identity is formed, expressed, and understood. Each portrait becomes a site where personal history and collective expectation intersect, revealing the complexity through personal vulnerability, and resilience embedded in the transition from childhood to womanhood.

My approach blends film and digital photography to create images that feel both intimate and intentional. Working across these mediums allows me to highlight the subject as the central point of interpretation, inviting viewers to slow down and consider the emotional and cultural narratives present within each frame. The combination of analog texture and digital clarity mirrors the dualities many girls navigate tradition and modernity, expectation and autonomy, softness and strength.

Girlhood also reflects my broader artistic practice, which uses surreal and layered imagery to construct visual spaces where viewers can pause and engage with their own responses. I am interested in how self-expression, cultural identity, and personal memory shape the ways individuals move through the world. This project extends that inquiry by focusing on the formative moments that define girlhood: the quiet shifts in self‑awareness, the influence of family and community, and the evolving understanding of femininity as something fluid rather than fixed.

Ultimately, Girlhood seeks to honor the diversity of experiences that shape young women’s lives. By centering the subject and embracing the nuances of their stories, the project offers a visual archive that acknowledges both the shared threads and the distinct pathways that define what it means to grow up as a girl today.

Alternative Photo Process

Patchwork

Patchwork began as a baby book. It was meant to hold simple facts and early photographs, but it slowly grew into something much more personal. I worked with images that carried no stories or explanations. Without knowing the history behind them, I responded through intuitive collage. I let shape, color, and rhythm guide me as I created new meaning from what I did not fully understand.

As the book developed, it shifted from a record of my early life to a portrait of who I am now. Each page became a moment of reflection. The process turned into a labor of love that required patience and trust. I kept the book private until it felt complete because I needed time to understand what I was making and why it mattered.

This project is also tied to my relationship with my mother. She saved these photographs long before I knew how I would use them. Her pride in the finished book mirrors my own, and that shared feeling gives the work a sense of continuity and care.

Patchwork is a study of how identity can be shaped through collage as storytelling. By arranging fragments of my past, I created a narrative that belongs to both memory and imagination. The book is not only a record of where I began. It is a reflection of the person I continue to become.

Artwork

ColorWheel(s)

Ceramics