This image was never intended for competition. I had an idea/concept that was nagging at me and I wanted to see if I was capable of bringing it to life.

It started with a self-portrait that I was taking - I was using a remote trigger and shooting tethered, trying different lighting ratios, and running around wearing a wig and a heavily beaded evening gown. After fifteen minutes of fake smiling, I screamed silently to try to release some of the facial muscle tension and happened to hit the remote trigger.

The feeling the image evoked when I finally saw it was that of strength, pain, and frustration. I imagined someone struggling to break through a barrier, self-imposed perhaps, and wanted to share that feeling with the viewer. I started manipulating the image in photoshop, watching youtube tutorials when I couldn’t figure out how to do what I wanted.

I started adding texture like it was cobwebs or static. Not a single barrier but tiny layers of things that needed to be overcome. It wasn’t until my friend Dana said the title should be “White Noise” that everything clicked.

I entered the image at our state competition out of curiosity. I’d gotten some positive feedback from fellow competitors but had no idea how it would do in front of a panel of jurors. Well, it did well. This earned my very first 100 at our state competition and joined the Imaging Excellence Collection at PPA’s International Photographic Competition.