“I saw a tweet once that was basically: I thought I was religious as a kid because church made me feel so much, and then I went to my first concert and realized I just love live music.”
Alongside the commercial work, he was documenting nightlife, photographing friends, chasing portraits, and navigating the emotional intensity of his early twenties. “It felt like there was a real gestation period in my peer group at that time, in terms of the work we were making, the people we were around, and the energy of the scene.” He also mounted his first solo show, Glass Walls, with Manual NYC, a moment he remembers as both validating and communal. “Everything was open and kind of limitless – there wasn’t that looming, omnipresent doom of people getting sick. New York youth culture felt like it had so much energy. Then 2020 hit and it felt like all of that got stripped away and forced a full reset, which has been a lot to reflect on.
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That period also explains his focus on intimate portraits of artists and musicians. “I was surrounded by so many incredible young people making really impressive work, and it felt necessary to start using the network I was building in a way that amplified other people, while also giving viewers real context for what the New York art scene looked like,” he says. His approach shifts depending on subject. With artists, his work leans documentary, rooted in process and environment. With musicians, it becomes more editorial: press images, album covers, tour documentation.
His relationship to music runs deep. He grew up surrounded by it, from his dad’s Deadhead playlists to his sister’s punk records, eventually landing in ’90s hip-hop. “I saw a tweet once that was basically: I thought I was religious as a kid because church made me feel so much, and then I went to my first concert and realized I just love live music. That’s exactly it for me,” he says. Over the years, he has toured multiple times with BadBadNotGood, photographed covers, directed music videos, launched a live studio series with NOT97, and photographed more than 40 artists in their studios.
