Hi, my name is Mariel and I am a queer, nonbinary, and neurodivergent artist who also loves photographing my life. I received my Bachelor of Fine Art with a focus in Printmaking and Drawing at the LSU College of Art + Design in my hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. I seek out places in nature and enjoy exploring the mystics of fertility, femininity and the effects of industrialization on our culture, medicine, psychology and lifestyle.

I've been taking photos since I was 8 or 9 years old. My family traveled a lot when we were growing up and anytime we traveled my mom would get each of my sisters and me a disposable camera to document our trip. I loved taking pictures of my family and other people in public spaces when we traveled, trying to capture moments that went by unnoticed by anyone else. As an introvert, this was my way of both observing and documenting life for myself. As I got older and my middle school years were ending, my parents took notice of my love of photography and surprised me with my own point and shoot camera. I used that until it's breaking point and eventually picked up my mom's old Minolta X-700 in 2008 and shortly after invested in my own Canon DSLR. Since then, I've continued to explore film and digital photography and have continued to shoot and try to document the life around me. The two main cameras I switch between are a Minolta X-700 film camera and a Canon Rebel T2i.

I feel very at home behind a camera and take a lot of pleasure in documenting moments of human emotion and interaction. So many moments in our days go by unnoticed and experienced without being absorbed and fully remembered, and my photographs are usually attempts at eternalizing moments that might otherwise be quickly forgotten. Without photographs, so many memories would slip away, and I aim to document both my life and moments in my friends' and family's lives so we might one day look back and remember the little moments that so easily go forgotten.

Thanks for reading, enjoy ~