Cosima’s comments about her shoot:

I grew up in California 10 minutes from the beach. My summers were spent playing with friends at the beach until dusk. We loved to build bonfires, blast each other’s favorite music and snap a million photo’s to remember every moment spent together. Like every normal kid in the 90’s, I can’t remember a single day going by when I wasn’t outside at the park or playing by the pool. My father left us when I was only 2. My mother did her best raising two daughters alone, but assured me it wouldn’t be like this forever. I accepted it was only a matter of time before she met someone else. Around the age of 9 my mother married my step father. So say hello to your new Daddy! I didn’t know much about the guy except he was our neighbor from downstairs. Soon after they were married, he asked if she would be willing to join the LDS church. She of course was willing to do anything for him, so just like that we converted from Catholic to Mormon. There we were in our Sunday best, my butt growing numb from the overly long sacrament meeting, and I keep getting in trouble for squirming around too much and being too noisy. As I continued to grow up in the church, I felt like the black sheep. I couldn’t understand why I wasn’t allowed to go anywhere on Sunday or dress how the other girls dressed in school. It only got worse when I entered High School. All my friends would go to parties and I was only allowed to go to the designated church dances, which were of course extremely lame! Unless you’re into the Chicken Dance or Cotton-Eyed Joe. The only reason I attended the church dances was to mingle with the boys. If you could imagine trying to socialize and be flirty bible space apart while wearing modest clothing that covered up a majority of my body. By majority I mean if a guy were checking me out he’d say “Wow guys, if you look hard enough I think you can see the outline of that chicks calves…woah.” My sister went on to go to college at BYU and quickly marry, which made my step dad happy. Me on the other hand, I was trying to branch away from the church and experience a life worth living, so I moved to Nevada. VEGAS BABY! I had my first taste of actual freedom when I turned 20, and broke up with my boyfriend of 4 years. The whole “we’re going in different directions” or “its not you, its me” take your pick. I did it for so many reasons. I just knew I was ready to get crazy! My time spent in Las Vegas away from my family felt very refreshing, like hitting the reset button on my life. I could do whatever I wanted to do, go wherever I wanted to go, and say whatever the fuck I wanted to say! My parents weren’t happy about it, in fact they never came to visit me once while I lived there because they weren’t approval of my lifestyle and living in Sin City. I’m not sure what they thought I was doing, but I was pretty much living the life of 9-5 working to pay my bills. I decided to move back to California after quitting my 9-5 job.