Photography taught me to spend time with people before drawing conclusions about what they need or value. Some encounters have also made me ask what responsibility can follow listening: how can a relationship, story, or exhibition create something useful in return?
During An Eternal Flame, visitors could make a donation and take home a postcard featuring one of the photographs. All funds were directed toward supporting a first-aid station for Longmen Village Primary School in Yongping County, Dali, Yunnan.
For me, the fundraiser connected two parts of my interests that had increasingly grown together: cultural storytelling and public health. The goal was modest and concrete—to let an exhibition built from encounters with communities also contribute something practical to a local school.
The school visits documented below grew from the same relationships: time spent with children and families in remote regions, not as a separate project, but as part of learning what a place actually holds.
