Photography has been part of my life for as long as I can remember, from sneaking my parents’ Polaroid to summer camp to learning the darkroom with my grandfather, whose cameras I still use today.

Alongside it, I spent over a decade in public and mental health, work that ultimately led me to become a therapist. My work draws on the idea that we understand our lives through the stories we tell about them and the belief that our connections shape how we see ourselves, each other, and the world around us.

byashleylk is a creative studio for stories rooted in place. In practice, that means telling the whole story. The grand, cinematic moments sit alongside the more subtle or quiet ones: a hand reaching for another, light moving across the table, the weather rolling in off the water. I pay as much attention to what’s happening around you as to you, and I shift perspective often, because every story looks different depending on where you stand. The meaning usually lives in the space between, and that’s the space that I try to hold.