Artist Statement

After I finished studying photography in school, I made the move that so many other aspiring photographers make and I headed straight for NYC. I lived in the city for a year, working as a freelance digital technician for various fashion photographers. I worked hard, learned the business and more importantly, learned what type of photographer I did not want to be. After my year of living in the city came to an end, I made the decision to stop assisting, to build a portfolio and to begin my photographic career on my own terms. In the back of my mind I had always kept stories that an old boyfriend had told me about his former job as an Alaskan fisherman in the Bering Sea. He painted a picture of a vast and colorful place, somewhere that I wanted to experience firsthand. I chose to move from Manhattan to The Aleutian Island Chain in Alaska since it was the furthest place west I could possibly move in Alaska and still be in the United States. I have always been attracted to extreme lifestyles and isolated places, so moving to Dutch Harbor, Alaska seemed to be a great place to live and to work at becoming a better photographer. Photography is how I explore my surroundings and what results is photographs from my fascination with what I find. The following Greetings from Dutch Harbor series is the result of my intimate 2-year relationship with the environment and community existing on the edge of the earth in Dutch Harbor, Alaska.