Magic
I’ve been in love with light and water for as long as I can remember.
As a child in Paris, my bed was by the window. At bedtime I would lie back and look up and there it was, moving on the ceiling above me: flickering, shimmering light I had no word for yet. Over time I learned its pattern—a reflection of the sparkling Eiffel Tower, caught and thrown by the building across from us, into my bedroom.
And so bedtime became something else entirely. The moment I saw that light I would run in the dark through the apartment to my father’s office window, to admire the tower shine with a thousand stars.
Light was calling me. And I always ran.
Growing up between Paris, Barbados, Ibiza, and St. Moritz, I found that same magic everywhere. On the ocean in Barbados, scintillating stars across the water, silver pathways that turned gold at sunset. I would swim for hours until my fingertips were like raisins, then lie in the sun, melting into everything around me, floating in a warm, peaceful void. In Ibiza, endless boat days watching light play across the Mediterranean. In St. Moritz, ice particles catching light, scattering like millions of tiny stars across the snow.
At NYU Tisch, analogue photography found me—and the darkroom. Light writing itself into matter. Light passing through negatives. Water in the chemical baths. Magic appearing—first in real life, then on film, then on paper. I changed my major to Photography and Imaging because I realized I could spend all my time there, in this marriage of the two things I'd loved my whole life.
Every photograph in this series was made in NYC, walking without a plan, led by light, seeing magic in fountains and puddles—every shimmer on the water, buildings, and streets.
In the water, light is liquid, fracturing into stars, orbs, psychedelic shapes, painterly reflections. Once, they made a heart, appearing for just a moment before dissolving back into movement. I am attuned to them with love and they call to me.
Made with Pentax K1000, 35mm film developed and scanned by hand. 2019-2022.