About

Hey, I’m Riley (he/they)—a gay, award-winning hobbyist photographer capturing emotion, decay, identity, and movement through the lens of memory and meaning.

Photography started as a way to cope after I lost a close friend to suicide. In the silence that followed, I needed something to hold onto. I picked up a camera to save the moments we usually forget—the ones that feel small, but say everything. A flash of light through shattered glass. A quiet hallway swallowed by dust. A fleeting smile at a Pride parade. My photography became a way to preserve the seconds that feel like lifetimes.

My work is inspired by the people and things that shaped me. The stark, cinematic visuals in A24’s Civil War influence how I shoot airsoft and tactical realism—gritty, quiet, and emotionally charged. My love for urban exploration comes from artists like Dan and Calev, whose work captures the beauty in ruin and stillness. My Pride and LGBTQ+ photos are inspired by the community that raised me and continues to hold me up. That includes my friends Will, Boxcar, and so many amazing furries who helped me feel seen—and who I now photograph with love, color, and intensity.

My landscapes are shaped by my colorblindness, which pushes me to see the world not by color, but by feeling—light, contrast, texture. And my passion for drone photography is rooted in my grandfather, a WWII pilot, whose stories of flight live on in the way I look at the world from above.

I shoot mostly on a Sony A7C II and Fuji X100VI, bouncing between formats to match the emotion of the moment. My photos have earned Platinum and Gold awards in international contests, but I’m most proud of the work that tells the truth—whether it’s a decaying building, a fursuit lit like a cinematic character, or a real, joyful face in a rainbow sea of pride.

This gallery is for the ones who’ve been lost. The ones who still stand. The ones who see beauty in wreckage, memory in light, and identity in every pixel.