object stuff

We never know what can change our lives until we find them.
	The city of Philadelphia has always been a part of my story. Nowhere else could I have been born and raised and end up the same person. All of the sharp-edged sensations I remember throughout my life have been tinged with the loving distance of the metropolis, from often-unreliable public transportation to exciting streets filled with people all going different ways. As I grew into my own, the city not only raised me to be an indepedent and focused person, gorgeous Philadelphia also nurtured my nature as an artist and a lover of visual beauty. It was the city, perhaps, that led me to my trade as a photographer - and my tool of choice, a camera.
	Like a hole-in-the-wall restaurant or unadvertised city thrift shop, photography was just something I randomly stumbled upon in the city. At first it was just a fun activity, something I did with my friends or even by myself. Pointing and shooting at pretty sunsets or exciting graffiti, snapping great-looking portraits of friends, or even taking note of otherwise extraordinary things I saw around my community. My pictures were impressive and often colorful, vibrant, or unique - but they were definitely amateurish. That was all I ever aspired to be, at least, until a friend introduced me to my home away from home - the Philadelphia Photography and Arts Center, or PPAC.
	It was in the PPAC that I found myself as an artist, and where I gained my tool of choice. The PPAC gave free classes and community seminars to local youths in photography or visual arts, and I started attending them for fun or out of general interest. I never expected to find my artistic calling there, but find it I did. It did not take long for me to start renting out or borrowing cameras on my own, and even less time was needed before I started to develop my own personal style of photographic art. Although photography is much more difficult than it looks, it is a very accessible art... but I was finished with being an amateur.
	Since then, a camera has been at my side during all of my best moments. A life of observing art in motion in Philadelphia has made me into someone who knows when to pick out moments that are visually appealing, and my Canon can always make my aesthetic ideas a reality. My most recent project was entitled "Chaos & Night", and it is the embodiment of my ideals so far. The models I portrayed have their faces and hands swathed in colorful glitter, and they are photographed in front of canvases and covers of pure black. With eyes closed and dramatic poses captured, they are left in imaginative and enticing photographs that leave much to the imagination.
	There is much that has influenced me and built up my artistic inspirations, but little has done more than the influence of a camera and the city. If I could have been born and raised anywhere else, I would refuse - and if I could be any other kind of artist, I don't think I'd accept that, either. From a city of sights and art, what else could I make but the most exciting visuals?