As a photographer, I understand the importance of telling stories through images.
When I created my Cosplay as Protest series, I used bold visuals to confront political and social issues. It was an intentional choice to make viewers stop and reflect. Visiting Learning Curve 17 at the Houston Center for Photography, I found a similar power in a very different approach.
This annual juried student exhibition, curated this year by Rachel Natalicchio, presents a quiet yet powerful meditation on our relationship to nature and the world immediately around us.
We live in an age of curated feeds and hyperconnected distraction, yet these photographs pull us back toward the tactile and the immediate. They speak to the richness of lived experience and the wonder hidden in the ordinary. As Natalicchio noted, nature is not separate from us, it is woven into the fabric of our daily lives.
They found beauty in the curve of morning light on rumpled sheets, the texture of hair, the rhythm of a daily walk. They reminded me that meaning often resides in overlooked spaces, such as the way light spills across a bedroom wall or how a shadow dances on the floor at dusk.
As I walked out of the gallery, I carried with me the reminder that stories worth telling do not always need to be loud to be heard.
*Featured Image: “(re)Frame” by Ginneh Thomas
Frederick J. Goodall is the Editor-in-Chief of Mocha Man Style, media spokesperson, event host, photographer, and a top social media influencer in Houston, TX. He likes to write about fashion, cars, travel, and health.