Well, my journey to becoming a photographer is
quite a long one
but I'll try to summarize it for you.
So I grew up in Germany
and I come from a very close-knit family
which includes two deaf
siblings but I reached a point where I
felt I wanted more for myself
and more for my future. I decided to move
to the United States with my dad. My parents had divorced and
I hadn't seen him in about 10 years
the move was quite an adjustment for the
both of us being apart for 10 years and then I show
up as a teenager was difficult to say the least. This set me
into a depression. I felt lonely, there was a communication
barrier since my dad doesn't use sign
language.
I felt isolated. I desperately wanted to
go back to Germany;
however,  that wasn't an option.  My  dad
wanted me to stay.
I felt torn.  I felt deeper into a
depression
in an attempt to find my way out. I picked up a camera.
I took pictures of myself. This helped to
build up my self-esteem and made me feel
better about myself and served as a distraction to my
sadness but over time in an effort to
not appear vain.
I decided to move from in front of the
camera to behind it.
I shot various objects and received lots
of positive feedback about my work.
This instilled in me a sense of pride
and was the determining factor
in my pursuing photography.
The concept actually began with the
client I was shooting and working with.
Later,  Deaf Spotlight informed / asked me about this event to donate to,
and I decided to pick a piece that women and the oppression they
experienced today this resonated with me on a personal
level because I was raised around a
house
full of women,  I have 34 cousins of which
31 are female.
I felt it important to show the
oppression that they go through.
I titled this piece, "Becoming." I wanted the viewer to decide what it
meant to them,  it could be becoming
powerful or becoming powerless.  It's open
to interpretation, so i chose this piece because to me,
it was powerful and really it gives me chills because of
that. This is the one I chose to be part of
the event and you the viewer can determine the
meaning of becoming.
Uh, the process behind the work... Yeah.
My process began with the DSLR digital
camera and I used various editing tools
and filters which is quite a long
process
and can be very time consuming. So in the end, I decided to go
with simply black and white.  It was
perfect.
It conveyed the mood I was looking for, 
I feel that using color offers a
different feel and perspective
so for this particular piece I just stuck with the black and white photo.
I used Lightroom Classic and I would say
that at the beginning,  the process
was difficult mainly because I did not have any of my own filters
set up so I had to download and save
filters over a period of four years when
I look back at some of those early
filters,
I see how much I've grown a lot of them
have too much color,
or too much contrast.  Most of my work now is a bit lighter.
The older filters still have value as I
can use them
as a basis of other filters by simply
making
minor adjustments as opposed to starting
over completely.
So it's a lot of work but it does become
easier as you gain experience.
