AGE: 30
BASED IN: New York
NOMINATED BY: Richard Mosse

My first camera was a Polaroid 300, one of the newer ones they started making in 2010 when I was coming of age. My friend Conner had just gotten a Polaroid and was shooting photos of dumb highschool hijinks. I remember seeing that camera and being so excited by it, the physicality of the final form of the picture, the way it sounded, the way it looked, and most importantly that the camera was a reason to be around people and places and to really look. So I asked for one for Christmas.

My obsession picked up quickly: I got some 35mm cameras and found a cheap darkroom set up on Craigslist. I’d go to high school, then go directly to work, then go to Sheetz, grab a coffee, and go to my dad's house and print until two in the morning—then do it all over again. Now I’m 29 and honestly my schedule hasn’t changed too much, I’m just not in school anymore.

Any commercial or paid photoshoot I’ve been on recently has made me depressed about photography and how people think about it and the pathetic vapidness of the capitalist hellscape and confused what the fuck a creative is and why they get paid so much money to say the word ‘vibes.’ But I do keep remembering a time in Butte, Montana last September [shooting photos of locals]. It was one of the few moments recently that reminded me that people can be genuinely generous and care about photography, even if they aren’t inside our small photo world bubble. It re-instilled the importance of going out into the world to make images, breaking out of our bubbles, embracing chance, and the value in being surprised. The world is always more interesting than your ideas.