In college, I discovered a beautiful little plastic camera, called the HOLGA, which enabled me to explore medium format film without investing $500 in an expensive camera body.

Always, my photographs had to involve people. I recruited roommates, myself, my family, and friends, to take part in what would eventually make up my senior art show. This self-portrait that you see here above would go on to be displayed in the Fraser Gallery in Bethesda.

As always, children were a favorite subject of mine, too. Their innocent and unselfconscious kineticism made for great gestures.

And Stephen was a willing experimenter, too.

I love how these photographs stop time, but simultaneously feel like movies because I blended frames together in-camera (simply by not advancing the film properly).

To a degree, I am able to control the outcome of my HOLGA photographs. There's a great deal of unpredictability, of course--where will the light leaks be? what if the film gets stuck in one of the plastic mechanisms? But I have a habit of putting it all together in my head--a series of three shots--before I orchestrate what people do in the frame.

It's beautiful controlled chaos.

I hope to explore other kinds of cameras in the near future, like the Lomo.