If You Listen Closely

During a particularly rough flare-up of panic disorder I challenged myself to seek calm with my camera in New York; glimpses of peace, harmonious form, buoyant bursts of color — none of which is easily found in New York if you don’t listen closely. I needed to manage the chaos. I needed to quiet the constant hum of the city and my mind. After more than a year on this trek, I’ve begun to realize that this other side of New York City contributes as much to its soul as the dreary reputation that precedes it, giving me hope for my own struggle against identifying myself as “someone who suffers from mental illness.”