Photo Anonymous

To begin, I am going to describe the state of the desk on which I am currently writing this essay. Besides the normal clutter of assignments, one film and one digital camera sit directly across from me. At least five rolls of film wait patiently to be developed in the left corner. Resting on the windowsill sits pictures of places I love — my backyard, Iceland, and the beach, to name a few.

If I was to examine a cross section of my brain, it might look a bit like my desk. My “creative side,” arguably my most prominent side, has had an immense influence on my adolescence. Photography, especially travel and landscape, has been a central aspect of my life for as long as I can remember. I crossed the national border for the first time when I was in first grade. I began to photograph the places I visited when I was in fourth grade. Ever since I purchased my first Nikon point-and-shoot, I have not been able to get my eye out of the viewfinder. My fascination with preserving moments began early. My mother used to ask me why I didn’t capture the Facebook-esque portraits of people standing and smiling and I, offended, would explain that I captured subjects, not people, and moments, not stagnation. These “moments,” of course, included...