A few years back, having come back to Laredo from a particularly hectic semester in Austin, I reflected on how the strings of my life had woven themselves up to this point. I was about to turn 20, realizing that the idealistic glow of my youth was fading and a matured pragmatism was taking its place. The pressures of the career hustle, and a requirement for perfection had taken their toll, I had come close to burning out.

I’d grown up an artist, having played cello and guitar for much of my youth. Art soon gave way to a greater focus on academic pursuits and I’d forgotten the vital place a creative outlet had played in my life. Having started shooting photography just a year prior to my return home, I thought it might be a good way to rekindle my artistic pursuits. I would soon come to learn that it would play a much larger role in my life.

My photography focuses on capturing the beauty in the mundane. Documenting, for permanent record, the everyday moments that truly give life its melody. My work forced me to slow down in a time when few other things could have convinced me to do so. It reminded me of the beauty in the smallest moments of life: the way the sunlight reflected off the petals of the bougainvillea in my backyard, the lighter-colored patch of grass at a park where an elderly couple had sat down for their weekly picnic. Having started my work in my early 20’s, I sought to capture what this often times confusing yet exhilarating time really felt like.

These selected pictures are a reflection on my early 20’s thus far, a celebration of the chaos and excitement associated with this time, and a reminder to appreciate the mundanity of life.