Mylar and Fire documents a bookstore in Rochester, NY, and the people that bring life to it.

While Mylar and Fire follows one particular bookstore, Small World Books, I started this project
to evoke the more universal feelings of community, curiosity, and empathy embodied by the act
of reading. At the core of the story is the owner, Rocco, and the cast of book club regulars that
gather in the backyard. Books often serve as doors between the real and the fictional. Through
reading and discussing books, they can allow us to understand perspectives that would
otherwise remain inaccessible.

The title of the project comes from two elements within the images. First, the mylar, with which
Rocco and his employees use to preserve dust jackets, maintains books for future generations
of readers. Next, the fire in the backyard fosters community and provides a forum for the ideas
within the books to interact with our own reality. With this in mind, I hope to show in these
images the love for reading, and an understanding of its importance, moving across generations
and geographical area.