As a child, Halima Jama found it difficult to make friends. She was thankful to have an art teacher who kept her busy at school. That included teaching her photography. At home, she occasionally got her hands on her dad’s cameras, his “pride and joy.” When she was 14, she asked her parents for one of her own.

Her dad bought her a small digital camera. “At the time, I thought, ‘Oh, he used the credit card, so this must be a super fancy camera,’” says Jama, laughing. “It’s like when you get your own car. It’s such a different feeling than when you’re borrowing someone else’s or sitting in the passenger seat and watching someone else drive.

“It was just a simple digital, but I became more confident because I was seeing the world through this camera, and seeing it differently. I was also using it to communicate with others in a way that I’d never been able to before.”

Throughout high school, Jama’s friends asked her to photograph their birthdays. She loved that others associated her with a camera. “Today, I always tell people my photography is like my companion,” she says. “The world makes more sense to me through my companion. It’s done so much for me. It’s taken me places I never imagined it could.”