Thanks Waco is an exploration of self by interacting with familiar and unfamiliar places in Texas. Though something can be beautiful, romantic, and alluring, it can't fully hide the deep muddled underbelly of its truth. As I photograph Texas with a critical eye, a melancholic feeling erupts, coinciding with confusion as I recognize the sheltered, naive experience of growing up in a small town. I took a chance and moved to New York. Now returning home to Waco, my new perspective of the world starts to challenge the charm I once remembered of living there.

Waco is a complex place with a complex history, a history that I did not know much about while growing up. Overwhelming feelings of love, sadness, conflict, and not belonging anymore take precedence. As I walk around Waco and reenter small-town life during visits home, it makes me feel uncomfortable; I'm living a double-life. Through the act of photographing, I create my own visual narrative of what Waco is to me now, which is conservative, utopic, oppressive, and home.