We all have stories to tell.

Some of us share by stringing words together, some craft the story with a stroke of a brush. While I love telling a good story, sometimes searching for the words feels limiting. It’s one of the many reasons why I’m drawn to visual forms of storytelling and why I resonate with Fred R. Barnard’s infamous quote, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” I’ve found that the words are so plentiful because they aren’t just the words in my vocabulary but in the interpretations from others.

Since starting this form of storytelling, editorial photography has become my favorite style. It’s a challenge to visually craft a story that others will find meaning in as well—but all challenges reap the best results.

This particular image is part of a series that I call “Selves.” Loosely based off Sigmund Freud’s model of the psyche, I wanted this image to show the interactions that we have with ourselves.

Our true self vs. our ego.

With the patience of a child, the ego is that little voice in our heads that recognizes needs and strives ruthlessly to satisfy them.

Where there is a need to be loved, there is also a fear of abandonment; the ego attempts to protect us from humiliation and pain. Her vision is to portray an individual who is grounded in her sense of self.

She’s the first to notice motives in others, full of reasoning and relentless to a cause.

Sometimes our ego saves us from repeating mistakes and sometimes it keeps us from being vulnerable with others. It is both necessary and destructive.

Maybe in a world without deceit, shame and manipulation, there would be no need for an ego, but as author Debbie Ford points out–we must keep fighting to see the humanity in everybody.

To live in the light of a new day and an unimaginable and unpredictable future, you must become fully present to a deeper truth – not a truth from your head, but a truth from your heart; not a truth from your ego, but a truth from the highest source.

-Debbie Ford