It's amazing that a little more than a year ago I didn't even know the fundamentals of photography and now it seems like it's all i can think about. I spend a lot of my time thinking of projects that could somehow impact the viewer and it gets harder everyday and my options get cut down further and further. I'm just waiting for that idea that is so refreshing and so unique it will force people to look at it. I still haven't found it but I keep looking for it day after day.

I draw a lot of my love for photography from artist that are already out there and already producing amazing art that i can only dream of matching. JR, a french photographer, has been my favorite for a long time now. He combines my love for humanity into his photographs by putting his pictures of these amazing women who are beautiful and strong on top of their houses so they can finally shelter from the rain. I have been so inspired by him and actually created an installation last year where I covered the basement lockers in my pictures, hoping to bring some of the awareness to Turpin that he brings to the world. My project, which was about the pressures teenagers can feel in a relationship, definitely got attention, hopefully at least one person got the message. Because that's why I take photos, so that it will impact one person. If my photos help better anyones life in any way everything i do is worth it, and that's what helps me when I get frustrated with my work.

James Nachtwey is another artist who inspires me with his art. He is a war photographer who shows human kind at its worst. I really admire what he is trying to do. He says, "I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. the events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated." I feel like there is no better reason to photograph, than to make sure that human injustices won't continue. I personally love this quote, and it's actually on my facebook as well, I really hope that in the future this is what I will work for, to make sure awareness is brought to people who need help and have lived through such pain. There are often times when I look at Nachtwey's work that I have to fight to keep the tears back, because some of his photos are that powerful. I feel like Nachtwey is my biggest role model, he puts himself in dangerous places to document the terror so that the public is able to see the horror. I admire his courage and hope that one day I will be able to do the same.

Another huge part of my love of photography is that I've had a really good teacher. My photography teacher was unlike my other art teachers in the fact that he let me explore what I wanted to do, and allowed me to put a meaning behind my work other than just making it look pretty. The fact that I was able to produce something that I cared about and not be told that I wasn't doing it right definitely contributed to why I love photography as much as I do.

Hopefully in the future, I will become a successful photographer who is able to impact my viewers with my art, until then I will continue to work at it because it's what I love and I can't imagine what I'd do without my camera.