Tyst (Swedish): Silent

In the spring of 2019, I traveled to Sweden with the last bit of my savings for a football trial with a professional club hoping that this opportunity would change my life. After failing the trial due to a muscle injury, I was left in Sweden for an additional 3 weeks with nothing to do but seemingly sorrow over the opportunity I had lost. I didn’t know then that this trip would indeed change my life, just not in the way I had imagined.

I spent the 3 weeks I had left in Sweden before returning to the United States reflecting and rehabilitating. With the limited range of motion I had due to the ruptured hamstring, the only physical activity I could take part in was walking. So I walked and walked and walked, taking in the wonderful nature I had somehow been blind to before. I was forced to slow down and take in my surroundings in a different way than I was accustomed to. A silent beauty emerged as I began to notice the different ways we connect to each other and to the earth. My thoughts shifted to the creative side of my abilities and I decided to spend my time photographing this “connection” I had noticed once I returned to the United States.

“Tyst” is an ongoing series of photos derived from the quietness of my time spent rehabilitating in Sweden. It focuses on the juxtaposition between our connections to one another as human beings and our relationship to the Earth around us.