Like many others, I began with landscape photography, using nothing more than my phone. Soon enough, I started getting a feel for the way I liked to take pictures. I still wondered how to create my own style or to create something I was truly proud of.
Below is one of the first photos I ever took on a phone, and definitely one of the first to get me to think about photography as more than just a means to an end, but an end in itself.
Many years past while I always worked part-time jobs to afford buying my own cameras and equipment, and I never stopped nurturing my desire to experiment with new ways of taking photos. Something about taking still imagery always felt like I was capturing a moment in time. As someone obsessed with time and always afraid of it sifting through my fingers.
It's only once I moved to Istanbul from Vienna that I began to take an interest in street photography and people. Until then, landscape imagery had been my focus. Once I had unpacked my bags and began wandering around this eternally ancient city, I could not help but want to capture every little detail I saw before me.
As I grew more comfortable capturing people, I began getting closer. The closer I could get, the more my heart would race. I still strongly preferred capturing what I saw in front of me, instead of creating my own narrative.
Soon enough, though, even that changed. Living in Dublin now, I find myself needing to replace Istanbul's hustling and bustling subjects with my own fabricated imagery - I went from trying to always remain in the shadows, making sure my subjects didn't know I was photographing them, to putting the camera right where they can see me and telling them what to do. I remain a mosaic of all the experiences I have had so far, but, for now at least, I focus on capturing the people in front of me.
