You’re going to die. I'm going to die. Everyone is going to die. That's the beauty of life, isn't it? The actions we take throughout our lives create a path to only one thing, the only one thing we all have in common, all ten billion of us. We start and end our lives the same way; it is our actions, taken or chosen for us, that determine why and how we end. Across the planes of our existence, we live in a universe where every possibility we dream of exists in different versions of our lives. The basis of my work is my own existence and the infinite questions of "what ifs”. The six different planes of existence in the universe are brought together into a single cube. 

The six different lives lived, opposite thoughts thought, are a lens through which we see how we live, the choices we made or didn't make; a portal into a separate plane of existence, from which I view at a distance. 

I look into my portal, and I hope to see an existence in a universe, far, far away, but not too far away, I see my grandparents and family together. A world where my family was torn apart by theology that dictates the world, separating our loved ones, destroying lives; I hope to see myself together with my family. 

I add myself, my life, my presence to my grandparents' universe, using any power I can to bring my life closer to theirs. My lens is my portal; how I use my energy to bring myself closer to them. Without it, I am nothing; I am just a hopeless nobody, physically superimposing myself in pictures, my only way of being next to my grandmother. Knowing it feels as if I am light-years, a multitude of galaxies away from her; it crushes my soul to know where she is. I use my portal to capture the moment when I can step into her universe, her existence, and feel so connected to her, my family, and my people. 

I felt so wrong when I first chose to create a series based on postmodern portraits, but as I walked towards that step, I felt like an imposter, as if it didn't feel right. It challenged me in the way I think, the intention of my craft, and the reasoning behind my photography. Why do I take photos? What do they mean to me and others? Being inspired by my own family and the core of our love for one another, this philosophy of transporting myself into a new reality with my family, separated by oceans, spoke to me in a way no other idea had before. I used that philosophy, that way of thinking, as a core principle in my approach to photography. Allowing my camera to be an extension of my mind, body, and soul. This allowed me to capture my family in a new light I hadn't seen before. Seeing my grandparents in such great freedom, which I am not used to, resonated with me. 

I will do anything to be with them, to use my portal to travel through time and across universes, just to be next to them. Turning the different versions of life into a single three-dimensional reality, allowing others to see what I see and feel what I feel.