The world around me was my medium, and I was inclusive—how liberal of me.
I travelled to New York City the beginning of 2017 in quite a frenzy. It was also quite the shock; I had been studying at the Savannah College of Art and Design in lush Savannah, Georgia where the weather was sweltering. Then finding myself in a concrete jungle where snow had fallen and refused to stay solid—yes, slush. I was to be in the city as the ‘man-on-the-ground’ for a fashion publication during NYFW. I had my flight booked to return to Savannah two weeks later. I will save this very complicated story for a later time but needless to say, I never left. A month later I shuffled into a Jet Blue bound for Savannah, packed up my belongings and drove it all back to the Big Apple.
As a new New Yorker, there was a palpable feeling of ideas and dreams of yesteryear being tangible—achievable. A reality that had only been a mere hope for a little boy surrounded by a magnitude of obstacles. (Yet another complicated story for another time, see what I’m doing here? ) A recommendation from a friend turned into an interview at one of the most respected fashion, creative agencies out there. I was fortunate enough to fill the position and work closely with the CEO.
My time at Laird and Partners spurred a massive awakening for me. I have always been a sort of jack-of-all-trades. Something that I have always worked towards and prided myself in. This caused, and is still causing, a large division for me as far as career paths go. I am a creative. There are times when I have such a feeling of enormous creative ideas and energy that just stretches outward and outward until I almost feel myself bursting. I have a love for love, for beauty, for truth.
In the dialogue Republic, by the ancient Greek philosopher Plato, there is an idea. It states that a need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem. A common phrase we hear in our day is “necessity is the mother of invention.” I can trace this idea molding me into the person I am today as far back as I can remember, because “oh, were there problems.”
Due to the warped sense of love my biological parents exuded (I was adopted in 2003) I learned to love myself. Because of a complicated learning curve moving from a Spanish speaking home to one that was strictly English, I learned to learn and to love learning.
Because my new family lived on a farm, I learned to work—to do things I didn’t like to. From all these needs or problems came creative inventions both tangible and intangible. My outlet was art. I created the strangest things: from building molds out of Legos for casting candles to table sculptures out of horse shit, old boat parts and flowers. Really. Horse shit(Dried—ew).
The world around me was my medium, and I was inclusive—how liberal of me. I also created beautiful things. Little villages hidden behind straw bales and under bridges to charcoal drawings of nude, male statues (that did not go over well). With the guidance of a beloved teacher who instilled confidence and exploration, I rapidly graduated into fine arts and crafts. Drawing, painting, sculpting, pottery, photography, fashion, theater and dance. I was hungry for creative knowledge and it showed. For the first time in my short life I felt heard.
As a New Yorker, I have now honed in on a few things that bring me joy and allow me to express some of my past without fear of belittlement or ridicule. I can attribute that to my strong will for getting me here, the freedom that is New York and a partner who has opened my eyes in so many ways.
I consider myself a professional photographer with a caveat—I am without professional equipment. There was a time when I let this hinder my work; a photographers block if you will. I compensated by starting to take an exuberant amount of self portraits using my iPhoneX (see some of them here). I started to truly understand its capabilities but most importantly I understood light—light is the key. I then decided to start a series solely using my cellphone as the tool. Thus was born my iPhoneX Series with a few different editions. A truly challenging venture that has produced beautiful results from truly beautiful people.