“I was gifted a 6x6 medium format camera by my high school photo teacher. We were at the Getty, and we were looking at a photo, and I cried. A) My work is never going to look like this. B) I know this is film because it has a look and none of my digital photos could touch this. C) I was crying because I was upset thinking that I’ve shot hundreds of thousands of digital photos and they still can’t touch this. Why? I was questioning everything, having an existential crisis. She [high school teacher] asked me, ‘Do you have a medium format camera that shoots film? I have one in storage; you can have it.’”

He said it was about patience and I thought that art was always a thing about patience and it didn’t matter that it hurt you, it was about the outcome of this beautiful thing. I fell in love with the process despite being so uncomfortable with it. I started drawing from there, then I realized I could sculpt things, which was even better because I could create things with polymer clay - things I saw in my dreams that I could bring to life. I could do anything, I was unstoppable.