Photography entered my life at a very young age and has remained with me throughout my entire life. That is how the world knows me. What I truly wanted to be was a singer, but I simply did not have the talent for it. When singing, I could never quite keep the beat. I discovered this fact when I auditioned to be the lead singer of a band at the age of 14. It was right around that time that I began my journey in photography.

Among the songs I grew up with, there is one that now simply makes me cry. That song instantly turns all my memories into teardrops. The first five notes transport me back 50 years, and the anticipation builds toward the intro of Jimmy Page's guitar solo. At those powerful, shifting notes that shake my soul, these days I do nothing but shed tears. It is such a famous and highly acclaimed song that feeling this way might seem terribly cliché. But I know what I feel, and I don't particularly care what others think.

I must have listened to that song hundreds of times, though I'd like to say it was millions of times.

Music is the most abstract art form capable of making a person cry and stirring the soul. I have never encountered any art other than music that brings me to tears. I do not cry even when looking at the works of my hero, Picasso.

There is a song by Pink Floyd called 'Echoes.' One day, while scrolling through YouTube, I clicked on one of their concert videos. I know Pink Floyd very well, and I knew of 'Echoes' too. But at a concert, musicians improvise. Towards the end of 'Echoes,' David Gilmour begins a bluesy ending on his guitar, accompanied by Richard Wright's organ. When I first heard the intro to that ending solo, I broke down. I couldn't stop the tears from flowing.

Aside from the emotions that bring tears to my eyes, I cannot connect anything that has happened in my life to these songs. I don't even know why these songs make me cry. The tears just fall.

It probably has a lot to do with the process of aging, but as an artist, one is naturally inclined to assign meaning to it and explore that thought. Why do I cry when I hear a specific song?

I venture a guess that it is because that specific rhythm aligns with the rhythm in the deepest depths of my heart. I am just built that way. Because everyone is different.

My genius came to me before I reached my twenties, and I am striving to reach that level once again. It will by no means be an easy journey, but that is precisely the path leading to the Stairway to Heaven.