What experience as a teenager or a child has had a positive impact on your life?
Sleepaway camp has had one of the most positive impacts on my life. I went for 10 years seven as a camper, three as a counselor and I loved every minute of it. Leaving home for two weeks when I was 10, and then doing a six-day hike through the Adirondacks when I was 15, were probably two of the hardest things I’ve ever done. But they taught me so much about myself: the joy of challenges, the power of being surprised by your own bravery, and how to sharpen your own capabilities. I see how camp shaped me in my everyday life, and I’m so grateful for it. Especially as an only child, I can’t imagine how hard college or even studying abroad would’ve been if I hadn’t gone to sleepaway camp.
What are people surprised to learn about you?
cinema photo or photography major—I’m a documentary major. Most of my friends have come from photo classes or from photographing on film sets, and I spend most of my free time in Ithaca at shows, which I photograph. I came into Ithaca as a documentary major, but I was also curious about the cinema and photography major. When I talked to my advisor about it, he suggested I take courses that overlap between documentary and cinema, which I’m still so grateful for. Those classes introduced me to photography and helped me realize that I want to use cinema and photography as a way to tell stories rather than create them.
What advice do you have for any students on the fence about studying abroad in London?
Do it. You’ve seen how nasty Ithaca is in March.
But seriously there’s always going to be a reason not to do something. I almost didn’t study abroad because I was scared I’d miss Ithaca, but if you want to really learn about yourself, stepping out of your comfort zone is the best way to do it. Experiencing another country, traveling with your friends, and doing it while you’re young—it’s priceless. Being in London has changed the way I interact with the world. Learning art history in museums, reading Shakespeare and then going to see his plays live—it’s made my life better and more full. I feel like I can now engage with art and culture in a deeper way, and that’s something I’ll carry with me forever.
Talk about a favorite memory and how it motivates you for the future/your future career.
Seeing a Sebastião Salgado print in real life for the first time changed everything for me. Salgado shoots exclusively in black and white to strip everything else away and focus entirely on the person and the place. He also prints large-scale, and when you see one of those massive silver gelatin prints in real life, it feels like you’re inside the image. The one I saw was a landscape featuring an Indigenous culture I knew nothing about—but that photo helped me understand it. That was the moment I realized how photographs can connect people and tell stories in a way that words or movies sometimes can’t. I saw it when I was a kid and kind of forgot about it until I got into photography on my own. Remembering that moment made everything click it’s what taught me the power photography really has.
How has living abroad influenced your hopes or career for the future?
Before coming to London, I knew I wanted to be a photographer but all I really thought about was getting a job and making money. Living here showed me that there are so many artists, galleries, and spaces that actually support photography just for the sake of sharing ideas and art not just commercial work. I’ve been especially drawn to galleries where the work feels like a life process. That kind of space used to feel intimidating to me, but now it feels inspiring. The Photography in Britain in the 80s exhibit at the Tate had a huge impact on me. There were so many photos that captured the mundane in such a beautiful way they helped me understand Britain in that era. My favorites were the snapshot-style photos of people working boring corporate jobs. Ever since then, I’ve been trying to capture the little, everyday moments of being abroad that don’t seem like much now, but will probably mean everything in 30 or 40 years. It’s exciting to know I’ll have those memories, and even more exciting to know that the friends I’ve made here will be able to look back at them with me.
What is your favorite memory from this semester so far?
Probably when me and my flatmates, Casey and Jake good friend Lee came to visit from Florence. She stayed in London with us for a week, and then we all went to Paris together. For Lee’s birthday, we made her a charcuterie board that was actually the size of our entire kitchen island. We invited maybe five other people over, and even then we couldn’t finish the whole thing. It was such a fun night, and I felt so lucky to be able to see a good friend of mine in another country and share that experience with my Casey and Jake too and to take her around this city that we all love so much.
