Jan 14, 2026 @ Land to Sea

I’ve always wanted to create something physical that I could share with people, that had some sort of permanence, rather than a fleeting social post, or shouting into the void of the internet. I’m a lover of magazines and editorial design, so this format has been one I’ve been excited to explore for a while.

To introduce this project I want to first go back. 

Waaaay back to my 9th birthday when I was gifted my first Olympus point and shoot digital camera. I was ecstatic. I adventured around the backyard taking pictures of every flower, zooming in on the individual blades of grass, I fell in love with the art of capturing a photo.

Jumping ahead a few years to being a 13 year old moving to a foreign country and traveling across Europe with my parents…my dream at the time was becoming a National Geographic Photographer, so I used my Bat Mitzvah money to purchase a Nikon DSLR camera…which is still clickin’ to this day. 

I found comfort in travelling with a camera whether it was around our city or out on an adventure. It gave me a sense of purpose. As a quieter and more introspective person, being able to capture a moment that caught my eye and share it with people filled - and continues to fill- me with joy.

My love for photography, specifically capturing landscapes was one of my great motivators as I travelled cross country and lived nomadically in a van for a year. This is when I first began shooting film on a manual 1960s Honeywell Pentax spotmatic that I bought on Ebay – which was perfect for my Ansel Adams inspired shots.

During the summer of 2023, I made the move to New York in search of jobs in advertising after having previously sworn that this city was not for me. I traded in a life of solitude, mountains, and outdoor adventure for mass humanity, the concrete jungle and creative opportunities.

I was once again forced out of my comfort zone and found myself reaching for a camera to make sense of it.

In the city, I wanted a smaller, lightweight point and shoot. In June 2024, as a birthday present to myself, I visited Brooklyn Film which is just a few blocks away and treated myself to a new film camera, the Olympus Stylus 150– in my hands it felt similar to that first Olympus camera I had. And as I loaded a roll of film into it, I once again felt ready for a backyard adventure.

For the first time, I felt inspired by the city around me. No longer defeated by it or scared. The cold of my first NYC winter had finally thawed and I was witnessing the city and everyone in it come back to life. The camera gave me courage. I felt curious. I wanted to explore, walk around, discover, and be a witness to it all. 

I’m a summer baby— growing up my family spent summers on the Rhode Island coast, which is where I fell in love with the ocean and beach. As an adult my visits have waxed and waned depending on the summer, but this particular year I attended the town’s big 4th of July blowout, which is pictured a few times throughout the zine. I was drawn to the kids playing in the bouncy house, getting balloon animals, and completing the blow up obstacle course as this was always one of my favorite summer events growing up. I didn’t belong on the kids side of the party, and equally felt like an outsider with the adults. I was hit with nostalgia. I missed the childish glee. The simplicity of summer's past. 

But when I came back to New York I found it again on a walk through Prospect Park when I saw a kid’s birthday party erupt over a cloud of bubbles. And, passing the skate park on a lap through McCarren Park. During a day in Coney Island with my brothers playing mini golf, riding roller coasters, eating hot dogs and walking the piers. 

I took long walks around Williamsburg, camera in hand, sometimes accompanied by my dog Churro if she was in the mood to walk, searching for more of these moments. 

I was mocked daily by the inflatable tube man at the car wash around the corner from my apartment that always seemed to be begging me to play as I returned from work. I was drawn across the street to the children playing in the spouting fountain. I paused at the crack of a bat hitting a ball as kids lined the dugout of a little league game. A weekend away being introduced to the Jersey Shore for the first time. The Astoria pool. 

I found that these moments of play, recreation, and joy were universal to summer. Regardless of place and age. And it made me feel alive again in a city that I thought at times might break me. That feeling of showing your toes in sandals for the first time after a long winter. A break amongst the fast-paced chaos.

Many things and people inspired this work, but two photographers in particular influenced my style. Tina Barney is a New York photographer who also has roots in our summer town in RI– she’s known for large-scale narrative portraiture photography that’s slightly off-beat. I grew up with her photo books on the coffee table and always admired her composition and the quirky untold stories her photos transport you to.

Another photographer that heavily influenced this project was one I learned about as all of this was just in its nascent stage. On a visit to Fotografiska I discovered Vivian Maier. Vivian (i like to think we’re on a first name basis) was an American street photographer living in NYC in 1951. Vivian was fascinated by and dedicated years to capturing windows into American life- motivated by a desire to document a moment in time on streets of this ever-changing city.

With these two women guiding my work, I set out on weekly missions to capture the world around me, documenting my commute, a week night evening, a Saturday afternoon, visiting new places, returning to familiar. Being an observer, witness, not interfering, not being overly precious, just wandering and waiting to see what I would see.

I saw a lot. After taking the summer of 2024 and ‘25 to accumulate work, I then got all my film developed by my friends over at Nice Film Club. I laid everything out on the table, probably around 300 plus photos and started sticking things to the wall. A visual exercise of what stood out to me. What moments went well together. Piecing together the story that photos were trying to tell.

Once I had the order, I turned to the computer and began creating the digital layout. Then came the search for a printer and testing paper. The zine was produced on recycled paper from Greenrprinter. And, then came a few months of building up the courage to actually spread my work out in the world and finding the right venue to share it with all of you. Thank you so much to Land to Sea for having us here tonight.