These photographs were made during a semester that changed the way I think about images. I was studying in Florence at Studio Art Centers International, walking through the same streets every day and finding myself drawn to the most ordinary spaces—hallways, desks, staircases, shadows cast on aging walls. It wasn’t the monuments that held my attention. It was the way light moved through these quieter, overlooked places.

At the time, I was working with a large-format camera and printing in palladium, which required a steady hand and patience. That process became a way to slow down and look differently. I started to understand how the banal could be poetic, how stillness could carry weight. These early photographs are where I began to build the kind of practice I still return to—one rooted in material, memory, and form.

Even now, when I make sculpture or installation work, the same sensibilities guide me. I’m still chasing that moment of quiet recognition, the kind that first emerged in these images. They represent a foundation, not just technically, but philosophically. Looking back, I can see how much began here.