Where the Water Comes From, my BFA thesis work, features people and places I consider family, working from an archive spanning 10 years - from 2016-2026. Thinking about the way our landscapes shape us and our relationships, this work documents the changing of seasons, relationships, and ecosystems and explores what it means to have access to wild spaces and water resources, especially during childhood years. It explores how access to nature builds community and attitudes of reciprocity between people and between people and their landscapes. I explore this by photographing the people that I love interacting with the Virginian landscapes that I grew up in, from the Appalachian mountains to the Chesapeake Bay, utilizing digital photography methods. The work features around 100 5x3" images transferred onto wood panels, with 10 keystone images on larger wood panels and landscape images on vinyl, creating a full wall collage organized based on location, people, and personal connections between people and places. This work is the beginning of lifelong archive.
