This project started by exploring comfort: what brings me comfort and why I sometimes feel like I need it so much.

I started observing myself in my mindful walks. How I perceive myself on them, what I pay attention to, and what feels comfortable.

I found myself carrying my film camera with me most of the time. This made me reflect on how I engage in cycles and repetitions that make me feel validated. This validation sometimes takes the form of photos that remind me that I have existed in places, with people, and had feelings. Sometimes I hold onto memories to move forward, even if they feel incomplete or inaccurate.

Finally, after reading McKenzie’s book “Raving as a Practice” I reflected on how raving is an ongoing practice that shapes how I feel, think, and who I am over time. I always come back to it. It is a constant – like walking and film photography.

These repetitions – walking, photographing, raving – have become ways of making sense of myself. They offer comfort, structure, and reminders of who I am. I return to them again and again, not just out of habit, but because they help me feel present, real, and connected.

I created an intimate setting that resembles a home – a bedroom – to exhibit my pieces. My aim is for viewers to feel comfortable engaging with the work, since they originate in private memories, while also conveying that the space they are in is as intimate as the memories it holds.

While my memories can be altered by time or distance, they still shape how I move through the world and how I interact with myself and others. The cycle of remembering and projecting into the future, the nostalgia (of past experiences, but also of experiences I have never lived), and the feelings evoked by the format in which those photos are presented have been my focus of exploration for this project.