During my childhood, I struggled with my identity because of the harsh judgment people perceived me as. As years went by, I lost touch with who I was as I began battling through trauma and mental illness. No one knew the truth behind my disguise and how I could control how I act and look in front of people. I began to use myself as a puppet, similarly to how I can control the artwork I perceive through photography.
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I began to get into photography to hold onto the reality and the perception of it all. Photography allowed me to portray my emotions and thoughts through my artwork by alternating the perspective of truth and perception of life itself. I mainly focused on portraiture because I liked the beauty of the emotions people have within their eyes and face. For instance, people's facial expressions and how they portray themselves in front of the camera can express a lot and also become misleading because of how blinded some people are. 
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As my love of photography deepened, I began to find myself and realize how I would use my skill. I ended up wanting to use photography in a way to tell a story. I made my AP concentration "Human Connection to Nature", to demonstrate how similar we function, grow, connect, and how easily we can become misconceived by our mask. The overall purpose is to tell a story on how delicate and innocent nature and humans are perceived but in reality, there is a whole different story behind it. To demonstrate this concentration, I wanted to focus on the emotional connection that nature has on humans. I wanted to show how fragile and easily manipulated nature and humans can be by expressing it through portraiture and still life. Therefore, I want to show how even the artist themselves and the subject in one's photo can manipulate their artwork to how they want to present themselves.