Raphael Arkera Studio Portraits

Raphael Arkera recently commissioned me to do create studio portraits to update his look/brand.  He wanted to go them to feel dark, edgy, moody, cinematic, etc, so naturally, I jumped at the opportunity.  Raphael’s a multi-talented creator, that has his hand in everything from creative direction to video game design, and much more. Check out his work here: https://www.raphaelarkera.com/ and on Instagram: @raphaelarkera. Here are a few our favorites from this shoot.


Cognitive Dissonance in Sobriety

As I write this, I have a little over 6 years of sobriety. And while there are certainly multiple things that factored into my previous drug use, I decided to take responsibility and clean up my act in January of 2011.

As much as I would love to say that life became “perfect” after getting sober, the reality is that just isn’t true. Life did, however, become immensely better (and thankfully, is still continuing to do so). This series is about that space that exists for me in between doing the right/sober thing and wanting to revert to old ways/behaviors. This space has become a place for Cognitive Dissonance. Thankfully, I have learned to not fear this space and instead, embrace it.

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