land of trees

Portland: a city that holds my most beloved memories and my darkest of moments. A city where my deeper love for photography was fostered, where I got to see my friends play house shows in gritty basements, where I got to experience bone-chilling cold on the coast, and where I got to meet such like-minded people it often felt like I was talking to myself. I remember sitting in an old house turned cafe, looking out the window and watching the soft flutter of autumn leaves, knowing there was something special about what I was experiencing. Though Portland can sometimes be a polarizing city, there’s an ease of existence felt there that I don’t know if I’ve felt anywhere else. Much like the surrounding environment, the people there are wrapped in a hard exterior, but exhibit a certain tenderness once prompted.

An ode to the city that has brought me some of the most profound sadness I’ve ever felt, but also the most insane amounts of joy and contentment. There’s something about being in the depths of a moss-covered forest, always slightly damp, that brings such a certainty of being. A deep inner peace is felt in those moments, even if it’s being padded by a severe sense of loneliness. Maybe the loneliness is what drives the simplicity of just being?

But yeah, writing about Portland feels a little too big for the words I possess, so here are some photos in the language I best know how to speak.