Exile in East County
A series of film photos taken during a nine month period of time where I did not leave the 20 mile radius of east county, San Diego. I was living in my parent’s home, next to a plot of raw land that I spent much of my childhood on. This nine month period came after an almost two year long period of moving every three months (or less).
Photography became a way of witnessing and documenting a land I had, for so long, wished to leave. This was a very still and uncertain time of my life – there was no where to go but to stay put, and the future chapter for me was blurry. Coming back to my parent’s home and staying put for an extended period of time led me to have many meditations on what home means to me, what my first formative years of life somatically experienced (living within those same four walls), and how change will sneak in through the window, no matter what our plans are (see the first photo of a tree chopped in half by a mythic lightning strike on the night of January 1, 2026).
Photographed on a Canon EOS Elan 7 with Kodak Gold.
