In 2012 I ventured to Ghana on a whim. The only explanation I can come up with is that it is just something I have always felt like I was supposed to do - so I googled "volunteer, orphanage, Africa" and quit my life in California. I spent 3 months in a small village volunteering in an orphanage and teaching in the school on the compound - and of course - taking photographs (but only after I was welcomed to). After 90 days, I had become a part of a village, and essentially a mom to all of their orphans. I loved every second of it. I don't know what I was doing before - but these kids taught me how to live - how to live in the moment and appreciate every single thing. It didn't matter what you had or didn't have, it didn't matter what happened to you, or what would happen to you, the emphasis was on the exact moment you were in - and as a person with a profession that is so much about the moment, I can't believe I never lived like this before. Two months in, one of the teenagers asked me if I would be coming back to see them after I leave and I said, "Of course!" By then I was invested in those kids - in their well being; their futures - and I couldn't imagine not knowing them after I left, or not seeing them again. He looked me straight in the eyes and said, "All the white ladies say that and we never see them again." To his surprise, and my pleasure, I proved him so wrong. I've returned 6x, each time figuring out a way to be useful and helpful to the village and the kids who have given me the greatest gift. My main purpose is never just to photograph, but to just live. I’ve never felt so free, and so celebrated, and so much a part of something, and I owe so much to the beautiful country of Ghana and it’s people. I am honored to have been allowed to capture them.
