Statement:

For a long time, I didn’t want to shoot “Bboys” (break dancers). It was something too special to me, something that for the past seventeen years has played a major factor in my life, down to the music I like. I know people from all over the world through this dance, and break dancing is the common language we all speak. I didn’t want to do a bad job documenting this community, so I never had much interest in doing so. Recently, my views changed. There is so much going on in this community, especially with break dancing being included at this upcoming Olympics, and with COVID-19 not many in-person events were happening, so I felt this was the perfect time to take on this challenge. 

Breaking gave me a purpose: a place to go to, a hobby to keep improving at. This dance has an ever-expanding and never ending vocabulary, with endless variations of moves you can create. 

With these photos I tried to capture the energy and vibe one feels when being there in person. It involves more than people doing cool tricks and taking photos of them. Breaking culture is so much more than a cool move and spinning on your head. When at a battle (competition) or practice, everyone feeds off of each other's energy, which is one of the reasons practice and competition are two totally different things. 

Some photographers that really inspire me are Diane Arbus, Harry F Conway and Peter Sutherland. These photographers take very captivating photos, I could look at their work a thousand times and never get bored, that is what I hope to accomplish with my work as well.