Up until recently, I’d settled for the comfortable self-deception that I could never go after my dreams. I could never really be an “artist” in the vague and lofty sense that I’d always imagined the title to be.

At best, I could hold a camera and frame a photo and it was a trade. Maybe if I was being generous, I’d maybe allow what I do to be called a craft. Despite all the evidence that photography can be ART, I firmly held the belief that it was possible for other people to do photography as art, but it was still beyond me.