Bagong Mundo / Lumang Mundo, 2023, Photograph, collage

Family photos of our earliest memories in LA have always fascinated me. Layering a few scanned images from those days as a toddler with my family in Downtown LA with an image from high school that I took of my little sister, and combining some more recent photos I have taken of the new Historic Filipinotown arch and significant signs around the neighborhood I grew up in, this piece is a way for me to somehow conjure those memories and bring them all together into one.

Koreatown, 2022, Photograph

During one hot August morning, members of the Las Fotos community and I were on a photo walk led by student Kimberly Espinosa. Koreatown is an area that both Kimberly and I grew up in and dearly cherish. Reminiscing on childhood memories and sharing the same odd feelings of discomfort that gentrification and change has stirred, it was nice to be in community together enjoying the familiar sights. I took this image in front of a Hanbok store, which reflected back some students and I, and many businesses that carry the rich histories of Koreatown and its people.