Welcome.
I grew up in the quaint town of Sainte Genevieve, Missouri, and was raised to value faith and family. Together, the two are my motivations and inspiration for everything I do.
If one were to ask where I developed my interest to pursue photography, I’d likely tell you “it sits on the top shelf of my mother’s closet.” I use to sneak into my parent’s room, and pull down the large boxes of photographs that lived there. Inside housed generations of family photographs, including my teenage grandpa in his military best, my parents’ journey from high school sweethearts to being happily married with five children, and the early years of my four brothers and I.
My true fascination with photography stemmed from the fact that my maternal grandfather passed away in 1981; almost eight years before I’d breathe my first breath. I never got to see his face, or hear his stories in the first person. However, photography has the ability to “stop time” and preserve our past. After sifting through that old box for hours, I felt like I knew him, like I was there to live that life with him.
For much of my life growing up, I wanted to be a writer; with writing, I could be creative and express myself, or I could document what was going on in my surroundings. I got my first camera when I was about 15, and it was then that I began to realize I could do the same through photography, as I had done with my writing. By the end of my high school career, I favored photography over writing.
Today, I'm a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor's of Arts degree in Photography.