How did your series Who Gets the Dog come to be?

I often have a sense before major shifts occur in my life - this was one of them. I felt the impulse to photograph my partner and I in our home. There was something in that time I wanted to keep forever. I liked our home together. It wasn't a nice place by any means - you basically stepped down into a long, dark, cement and rock hallway. An overpriced railroad unit in Brooklyn. The landlords would always let themselves in to go to the backyard and tear up whatever garden project I had going. But it was ours and I loved seeing our belongings mixed together.

My partner and I are were so in love but struggling with real heavy issues. I look back now and I recognize that I had been feeling like a supporting actor in someone else's life. I wanted to feel like I mattered.

A couple months after I began taking these pictures, our house flooded and we were forced to move out at 3am and never sleep there again. It was heartbreaking and our lives unfolded in unexpected ways.

Were there any challenges that came up while working on this project?

I felt resistance to making - and then showing - images that reflected where I was in my life at the time. Both physically and emotionally. I'm a very private person and so photographing my home, my partner, our bodies, my mood - it's all cracked open. It took a very long time after taking the photographs to edit it into a series. It brings up a lot of memories and feelings that are sometimes nostalgic and beautiful and sometimes distressing. I am slowly gaining a sense of empowerment through this work.

What do you want the viewer to take away from this series?

I would hope that there are emotions present in the images that viewers can recognize and connect with.

Describe your creative process in one word?

Intuitive

What inspires you to pursue image-making?

I have a fondness for making and viewing photographs that feels the most authentic expression of myself. It is simultaneously a source of joy, guilt and release.

What was the last book you read or film you saw that inspired you?

I started re-reading Cookie Mueller's Walking Through Clear Water in a Pool Painted Black. I realized a chapter into it that I had read it over a decade ago and many of the stories had vaguely lived in my memories. Cookie's writing reflects an unapologetically perverse life and I appreciate her blatant disregard for convention. Recently I read My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh. This was the first book in awhile I devoured. I love an unlikeable yet relatable character.

What advice would you give to people just starting out in photography?

Pursue your own style and point of view, rather than what seems to "work" for other people. Be intentional and thoughtful.
Your gear does not matter.

What is your favorite podcast to listen to?

My favorite podcast is Desert Oracle by Ken Layne. It's dark humor that interweaves fringe culture and the absurdities of modern society, with desert myth and occultism. Layne's speaking style reminds me of Joe Frank.

How do you take your coffee?

I like my coffee hot and black always

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