Yuri A. Jones

Most of my work starts with Dominica. The mountains, the waterfalls, the coastlines, the forests, and the small things that are easy to miss if you're moving too fast. I'll revisit the same spot multiple times looking for the right angle, waiting on weather, or just hoping to catch the few seconds when the light shifts and everything looks different.

For me, photography has never really been about documenting what a place looks like. It's about trying to hold onto what it felt like to be standing there. That feeling is different every time. Sometimes it's awe, sometimes it's the quiet comfort of somewhere familiar, sometimes it's seeing home and finally understanding why people who've never been there would want to come.

The nature work is, in part, an invitation to slow down. Dominica has this unusual combination of dense forest, rivers, waterfalls, mountains, and sea all within reach of each other, and I want the photographs to reflect that without flattening it.

If someone looks at one of my photographs and feels a pull toward the island, or remembers somewhere they love, or just lingers on it a beat longer than they expected to, I've done my job.