“Lend me your wings and teach me how to fly.”

That line from Emilíana Torrini stuck with me. It became the wind beneath this series.

Birds is about the lightness I often long for — the youthful urge to leap before you look, to stretch your arms like wings and believe the sky will catch you.

These portraits are not just about freedom. They’re about that in-between state: no longer child, not yet weighed down. There’s play in their eyes, and a hunger to explore the world without armor.

Maybe this is what dreaming looks like when you dare to stay soft.