Marcela's love letter:

I didn’t grow up with many photographs of my childhood.
The ones we do have matter more than I can explain. They are small pieces of proof. The way I looked, the way I lived, the things I loved before I knew they would disappear with time.

That absence shaped me. It is why I believe photographs are not simply beautiful objects, but necessary ones.

Motherhood deepened that belief in ways I could not have anticipated. It changed how I see people, how I notice connection, how I understand time moving both slowly and all at once. It made me more aware of the quiet moments that often go unnoticed but become the foundation of a life remembered.

I am drawn to what feels genuine. The moments that do not need to be performed to hold meaning. A hand reaching instinctively for another. A child leaning into their mother. The subtle ways people reveal their love when they forget they are being observed.

My work lives in the space between intention and imperfection. I am equally inspired by the softness of everyday life and the feeling of stepping into something elevated and deeply felt. I want my photographs to hold both honesty and beauty without sacrificing one for the other.

There is something about the sound of film advancing, the pause before the shutter clicks, the awareness that what is in front of you will never exist in exactly the same way again. Photography asks me to be present. To trust instinct over control. To feel something before documenting it.

In many ways, my work is a reflection of the people I photograph, but also of the life I am building alongside them. A search for connection, memory, and proof that we were here and that we loved each other deeply.