Friendships can be complicated. Awkward beginnings, turbulent middles, bitter endings. Other times they are simple and easy, and there is something quiet and natural and intuitive about the way you get along with someone almost immediately, as though your brains share some essential ingredient or your hearts share some semblance of a past life, galaxies away, years ago. Its rarity is part of its beauty.

I wanted to pay tribute to that feeling by creating a photo series about it, and Pedro and Maria were kind enough to model for me. I met them a few weeks ago and immediately felt like they had a really special friendship–honest and gentle and goofy. I’d like to dedicate these photos to Madeleine, who hates the term best friend (which I will therefore not use, although that is what she is to me) and who lives an ocean away but also resides in my own brain at all times. ♦