There are places I travel to for adventure.
And there is one place I travel to simply to come home.
I grew up in Transnistria. Since then, life has taken me to Russia, and later to the Netherlands. Every move gave me new opportunities, but it also meant leaving people I love behind.
Distance has a way of changing the meaning of time.
Sometimes years pass between seeing the people who matter most. Life takes us in different directions, and we learn to cherish every reunion, no matter how ordinary it may seem.
This year, when I was creating my vision board, one wish stood out above the rest: to spend more time with my family. Not because I wanted to travel more, but because I wanted to be present for the moments that matter most.
There is nothing extraordinary about those days.
We share meals, tell stories, sit together as the sun disappears over the fields.
But those are the moments I remember.
Being away from my family has taught me something I carry into every photoshoot: photographs become more valuable with time.
Years later, we rarely remember what we were wearing or whether everything was perfect.
We remember who was there.
The people we laughed with.
The people we held close.
Maybe that's why I became a photographer.
Because memories fade.
Photographs help them stay.
— Katerina
