The places where we gather, move, make, photograph, and create are more than beautiful backdrops. They are living landscapes with histories that stretch far beyond our own.

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I am based in Northwest Philadelphia, on the ancestral homeland of the Lenape, the original stewards of Lenapehoking, which encompasses much of present-day eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, and parts of New York. Long before Philadelphia existed, the Lenape cultivated deep relationships with these forests, creeks, and watersheds through generations of care, stewardship, and reciprocity. The Wissahickon, whose name comes from the Lenape word Wisameckhan, meaning “catfish stream,” is one reminder that the places we love have stories that began long before us.

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The Lenape were displaced through colonization, violence, and forced removal, but they remain a living people whose communities continue today.

Learning this history has changed the way I think about place. Whether I am photographing a family, practicing yoga, writing, making something with my hands, or bringing people together around a table, I am doing those things somewhere. The places where we gather shape our experiences, our relationships, and our sense of belonging.

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Wide Awake is rooted in the belief that paying attention is a form of participation. I want to approach the places where I live, work, create, and gather with curiosity, gratitude, humility, and respect, while continuing to learn the histories that came before me.

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I hope the work I make here can honor these places as more than settings or scenery, and instead recognize them as living landscapes with stories, relationships, and communities that extend far beyond my own.

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May I continue to learn, create, gather, and move through these places with care.