I grew up with prints of Ansel Adams' iconic black and white landscape photos around the house. My parents were sincere hobbyist photographers shooting 35mm film and early-adopters of digital cameras. Every gathering with family and friends included at least a couple quick snaps to document the moment. Toy cameras from my childhood morphed into real point-n-shoots, and then eventually into my first film photography class at Minneapolis Community & Technical College in 2005.

But it wasn't until opening an independent art gallery in 2012 that I truly fell in love with making images. The gallery needed a steady stream of media to promote and archive its exhibitions, artists, and events. That's when I got my first digital SLR and started collecting lenses. We needed to not only show the artwork we were trying to sell, but we also wanted to show people connecting with each other while experiencing it.

We were building community one show at a time, and the pictures I took helped deepen those ties and celebrate our successes along the way. Before long we started producing more video so that artists & curators could personally share more about the processes and meaning involved in their work.