Somewhere I can hide

I built a castle to survive the end of college.

As my final semester of college approached, I found myself reaching for cardboard, paper mâché, and retreating back to concepts from my childhood. While others finalized job applications and lined up internships, I was hot-gluing beer boxes and Amazon scraps into turrets and towers. This project was born from my panic and anxiety, that space between ending and beginning, and the only way through it was to build a world of my own.

This series is both a rebellion and sanctuary. It’s about dissociation, yes, but also about one’s agency. By stepping into forests and fairytales, I created a way to control my own narrative. Each image holds a different fragment of this longing: for magic, for protection, for girlhood unbothered by the demands of professionalism. In these images, I get to be barefoot and powerful. I get to vanish. 

Shot entirely on experimental 35mm film, the color palettes of this project are part invention, part accident. Green and pink are my guiding forces: green for the natural world and serenity, pink for mystery and the divine feminine.