29 Candles and a Camera

January 2024. The kind of cold that lingers in the air, wrapping London in its winter hush. My 29th birthday. A day I wanted to capture, yet, standing in front of the mirror that morning, I had no idea what to wear.

Lidiia saw possibilities where I saw uncertainty. With her guidance, what started as indecision turned into something unexpectedly perfect. The shoot became more than just a birthday tradition. It was a reflection of who I was at that moment in time, standing at the edge of another year, caught between the past and whatever lay ahead.

We wandered through the city, each frame a quiet celebration of growth, resilience, and the beauty of the in-between. I hadn’t planned for this shoot to mean anything beyond the day itself, but in the end, it became something more, a memory, frozen in time, of the year I stepped into 29 with open arms.