When a friend quit his CPA job in 2022 to pursue Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, I first framed it as a story of ambition. After three years of photographing, it became an exploration of how identity is performed across dojo rituals, corporate life, and private solitude.

The contrast revealed the tension between performance and vulnerability, what trembles beneath the surface. I shifted from celebrating ambition to observing doubt, repetition, and emotional labor, slowing down to avoid heroics and embrace ambiguity. Hot Hands, my first documentary portrait, led me to probe beneath the bruises of achievement and inspired a broader project, Man of Nowhere, about people who chase dreams despite harsh realities.