I was born in 1971 in Atlanta, Georgia. I grew up in the hot, humid summers of Texas playing on the thick branches of my neighbor's magnolia tree. When it thunderstormed, I took my Barbies to the street gutters and sailed them down the block. My favorite things as a child were: Ricky Schroder, dressing up our cats, sudsing up the trampoline and jumping in the bubbles with my little brother, Christmas morning, fireflies, and Atari. My least favorite things were: school bullies, piano lessons, having my mouth washed out with soap, and fetching the laundry at night from our dark garage where at least 8 million Daddy Long-Leg spiders heaved and throbbed en masse in every corner.

I liked growing up. I attended the Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts in Dallas and was able to project all of my teenage angst into musical theatre and deep conversations with friends who were as odd in the outside world as I was. I eventually graduated from Smith College, where I learned a great deal about everything fascinating and nothing practical. I became a journalist, a dude ranch housekeeper, a nanny, a waitress, a horseback riding instructor, and a medical malpractice investigator.

It was at the age of 23 that I saw the photographs of Dorothea Lange at the Oakland Museum and decided to become a portrait photographer. I bought a camera and began to teach myself how to use it, finding mentors along the way and photographing any person who would let me. To be honest, I was drawn to portraiture because I wanted to feel more patient with the world and with myself. Photography for me is simply pausing to ask questions about people—their perceptions of themselves, their relationships with others, their connection to the physical environment, and I want the image I create to be an honest reply to those questions. My experience in doing this has convinced me that people are vastly good, very tender, and have the capacity to evolve at any stage of life. Knowing this makes me a better person.

These days, I have two older sisters who adore and boss me to death, a genius brother who doesn't say much, a darling husband whom I married in the courtyard of his grandparents' nursing home in the Mojave Desert on Super Bowl Sunday 2007, three cats, and a rolly-polly baby named Harper Lula. After a 12-year tour of duty in Oakland, I now live in Healdsburg, California and am glad to report that I can now see the stars at night and have yet to be robbed at gunpoint. Despite my affinity for sophomoric humor, I have managed to morph into a joyful and well-adjusted adult. It is my life's goal to help my daughter remain the happy little human she is.