Artist Statement: The photo series, Moving & Looking, captured holiday lights in an abstract way. The lights were captured at different angles, up close, in motion, completely still, in focus, and out of focus. I wanted to blur the line between the recognizable decorations and simply capturing the warmth, glow, and trail of the lights. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday, and I have greatly enjoy the feelings that are associated with the season. I wondered if the warmth and familiarity could remain if I intentionally made the lights I know unrecognizable. I thought about what it was to move through a space. The lights would trail because I zoomed, got closer, backed away, or took off in a car. When I did this, the lights seemed to turn into more fundamental things like energy or electricity. Sometimes, I kept the photos stagnant. I wanted to see if the shapes still felt familiar or if they formed something new altogether. While shooting, I expected to concern myself with the graphic elements of color, shape, line, and repetition. What I found was that I became hyper-aware of a technical element, time. When I would move through a space, images in motion, the trails and blurs of light, only last a fraction of a second, yet these pictures took the longest to make with low shutter speeds. The still, frozen images were quick to shoot with a higher shutter speed, but the only way to notice the reflection of light in a puddle, or the ridges of a dirty lantern were to stop and to really look.