2018: I spent January in NY but was tired of the cold and didn’t want to spend months locked in a studio. I made a deal with my team: I’ll spend the winter in LA and come back to NY in May when it was warm. I ran around LA with the purpose of making iconic imagery. Not ‘iconic’ in the annoying sense used today, but iconic in the terms of graphic communication and/or cultural iconography. I was having the most fun connecting with my art, new friends, nature, and humanity. I tried finding stylists but it was a struggle. I took meetings but I wasn't on the same page withr most so I said “fuck it” and focused on skin instead. My work didn’t need stylists - it needs people, stories, ideas, and concepts. I was shooting a friend in her pool in May, just before returning to NY. It hit me: I loved LA. I loved my friends and I loved the weather. I felt a lump in the back of my throat and a tear roll down my face when my mouth blurted out “I don’t want to go back to NY. I want to stay here.” But I told my team I’d be back so I went back. Photo reps were contacting me due the AE campaign throughout all this. I couldn’t find any right fits. Then, due to things outside my control, my team slowly broke apart as I returned to NY: my producer moved to Michigan and my studio mgr moved to Hawaii. I wanted progress. A friend told me “just go where you laugh the most.” So I packed up my things and moved to LA in August 2018 with a commitment to myself to make it work. I spent 10 years in NY and could truly call myself a New Yorker now. I helped carry the torch of the amazing NY art scene. I left a lot off good friends. Now it was time for a new chapter in a new world. I found a few jobs, shot a ton of tests, and explored nature. There were things I couldn’t shoot in NY that were celebrated more in LA. If NY’s puzzle was “how to make art in the fashion and corporate scene” then LA’s puzzle was “how to make art in the commercial and influencer scene?”