The first thing I ever posted on this site was an entry saying goodbye to Brooklyn. Even then (Oh so long ago! Except not really since it's only been 7 months and I'm pretty lame at updating this site so it's not like a lot has happened since then, so, um, anyways...) I mentioned that I hate goodbyes. And you know what? I still do. Perhaps now even more than ever.

I'm notoriously bad at saying goodbye and have taken to telling virtual strangers not to worry if I cry when they leave, it's nothing personal, it's just me. Oh, and if I run away without saying anything? Totally normal! Nothing to see here folks.

Last month I said a final goodbye to a close family member, last week I said goodbye to the comforts of school and my classmates and this week I said goodbye to two friends. I can't compare the experiences and the impact of each is very different but damn, I feel it, you know? And the unexpected ones are the worse.

You would think as someone who has lived in three countries and traveled to many more, as someone with friends all over the world, that I would be better at this. I'm shamefully not. But going through loss again (and yes I know that ending school is not a fair comparison to losing a family member, but stick with me on this one) brings me back to my photographs. The basics. I started making pictures because I had an unreasonable desire to document the people in my life. Through years of school, working in fashion, traveling and other detours, I still make photographs for that one reason. Even through the changes in technology and our evolving relationship with images (do images loose their value because of our unimpeded access to them?) I still always come back to the photos of my daily life and the people in it. I can flip through (physical or digital) photos for hours on end and remember all of those moments (even the blurry ones). I know you can't hug a photo but nothing else can make me laugh or cry or take me away so suddenly. Somehow having those images around me makes saying goodbye a little bit easier because the only thing worse than a goodbye is a goodbye to someone I haven't yet made a photo of.