By nature, I am a visual person. I am interested in relationships between people and/or subjects. I explore the strengths and vulnerabilities of the topic I work with. Through portraiture, I photograph people with compassion and empathy. As an active listener and observer, my work is informed by discovering people’s personalities and perspectives. The photographers that work in this vein and inspire me include Richard Avedon, Diane Arbus, Annie Leibovitz, Irving Penn, Cindy Sherman, Doug Dubois, and Sally Mann. My photographs for the past two years are of my family back in Houston, Texas. Whenever I return home, I take a series of photographs during my short stay. In these uncertain times, I find myself bombarded by distressing headlines that promote anxiety and the fear of death. But during these times, I am also motivated to photograph my parents. This body of work is strongly influenced by photographer Larry Sultan, whose 'Pictures from Home' series explores a complicated parental relationship. He beautifully states, “I realize that beyond the rolls of film and the few good pictures, the demands of my project and my confusion about its meaning, is the wish to take photography literally. To stop time. I want my parents to live forever.” I do too, Sultan. My body of work reveals my love for my parents by exploring my relationship between them, their lives, and the spaces we share. In a diaristic approach, my photo series (“I love you. I miss you. Have a good day”) presents an intimate dynamic view of family relationships and domesticity. Photographed in black and white with subtle warm tones, the work immerses the viewer into the humble lives of a mother and a father. The stern glare of my father’s gaze, the tenderness of my mother’s face, and the serene spaces of domestic familiarity establish a rich and gentle narrative of family kinship, the inevitability of aging, and the will to move forward. One of my favorite photograph you are seeing here from the series is of my mother cutting my father's hair. It is one of the few intimate moments my parents spend together.