I'm Victoria Gamlen – a fine art, street, and portrait photographer and California native currently based in Mexico City.

 

I fell in love with photography at a young age perusing fashion magazines waiting for my mom at the nail salon and flipping through the piles of National Geographics in my dad's office.

 

But I wouldn’t pick up a camera until I was 23 when I got clean and sober. Reaching for my grandpa’s Nikon F, I took to the streets of San Francisco, then  Chicago, and now CDMX.

 

While photography brings me unparalleled joy, much of my work was the result of attempts to make sense of an enormous amount of pain.

 

I am not unique in this respect; I would argue this is true of most creatives.

 

However, in a world that glorifies self destruction for the sake of art, I hope that mine serves as proof that it's not a pre-requisite.