Before I even knew how to write, I wanted to be a writer. I had diaries that my mom filled in for me, because the stories were already alive in my head. Later, when I started gymnastics, I couldn’t stop imagining jumping so high that I wouldn’t even need to wait for the red light to cross the street.
Then came the music phase, when I wanted to be a dancer. I even started putting together a group to film a music video. It never happened, maybe because another dream had already distracted me.
I don’t remember exactly what I wanted to become, but I know I always wanted to be in the spotlight even though I was shy and lived with social anxiety. By my teenage years, it was modeling. And let me tell you, I was not a pretty teenager 😂. But for some reason, I was always comfortable in front of the camera. Compliments started pouring in on the photos and videos I posted, and soon people began asking me to shoot them too.
My passions keep shifting, and I’ve stopped trying to hold them still. Maybe I don’t need one final label. Maybe the change itself is who I am.
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By @dianaasunn
bunch of picture-perfect moments from my time in London. A trip I didn’t even plan. I just ended up there, more to get away from everything I knew, including myself. I was running away. But I ran in the right direction. I saw so many people from my past, like it was meant to be, to remind me how loved I am, right at a time when I wasn’t feeling lovable.
maybe it all makes sense later.
Back at 15, all I had in mind was being in chat rooms and hiding away from my family, not knowing that living close to them would become a dream a decade later.
P.S. this was my yahoo messenger profile picture. Self portrait, printed it on A4 paper.
If you ever see my father or his photos, you’ll notice the front first. The tough skin, the quiet strength.
But behind those eyes lives the most fragile, emotional, and deeply profound soul I know.
A loner who disappears into his books. He doesn’t talk much but when he does, you don’t want him to stop.
When I was around 15, my father told me “I live for you”
And if I’m here today, writing this, it’s because of that sentence.
I went through a very deep depression in my early twenties.
I chose to fight. I chose to live because of what he told me.
That’s unconditional love.
We chose to live for each other.
Happy birthday, Baba 🤍 @jamaliamir47
This is not her best picture but to me it’s the most important one I have ever taken.
I was photographing my mom as she was singing to me. She paused to hold back her tears but couldn’t.
The way she looked at me. I could see in her eyes that she already missed me. She got me.
I shed a tear and kept pressing the button to capture the real thing between us, the memory, the pain, the closeness and the distance.
I am so honored to have a soul like hers to mother me. To teach me life and how to live it. To forgive. To be gentle. To be easy.
I do so much inner work every day just to become a little more like my mother.
I am proud. I am grateful. I love you.
Happy Birthday Maman♥️
@ley.jam and I have worked together for over 3 years now. Time flies.
With everything happening in our home country, with her family and members of my family being there, I need to celebrate the beautiful parts of this existence, and Leyli is one of them.
Love you, Leyli joon.
