Throughout my upbringing and teenage years, I often struggled with my identity and my relationship with my religion. I often felt lost, or as though I was doing something incorrectly when it came to my faith. In my photography, I have begun to develop a style that reflects my experiences and journey finding peace with who I am and what I believe in (or don't believe in). The photos I chose for this portfolio are in black and white-- white for purity, black for loss, death, worry. They are intended to convey the feeling of loneliness, fear, and believing oneself forsaken. In general, I often find myself photographing the same themes, objects, and symbols, and I've noticed that they each have some underlying meaning to them when I go back and look at them a second time. For example, water to me represents transcience, the possibility for positive change, and constant movement. Sharp lines and stone architecture give a sense of foreboding or authority to cower before. In the context of this particular portfolio, the pillars (Image 5) and the shadows surrounding them make me feel very small. I often felt this way about the church I belonged to-- being watched over and admonished for simply living. The sharp lines are also present in Image 4, which I've titled "Cobwebs". The image is almost entirely straight lines and right angles, but the cobweb itself is made of up curving and twisting fibers that attach themselves to different corners. In a way, I see myself in the shapes created by the spider's silk-- clinging to whatever would have me, frail and breakable, but still holding the potential to be something beautiful. The swan wing in the third image resembles an angel's wing, with water behind it-- both of these things together create a feeling of safety and purity, but still a layer of skepticism underneath. "The Gaping Mouth", the second image, is a photo I took in the contemporary wing of the Art Institute in Chicago. The vibrant black of the doorway represents an unknown path, or simply, uncertainty. The man to the immediate left of it is the same color as the door and looks as though he is contemplating walking toward it. Overall the image is meant to convey unpredictability, and both subjects being in black say that nowhere is necessarily safe, not even within the self.