Neighborhood Shadows, 2019
For the past few years, I have been photographing the shadows in my suburban neighborhood in Burlingame, California where my husband and I rent an in-law unit. This year, we adopted a baby boy and on walks with our son in the stroller, I have continued this practice of photographing shadows. While the shadows are visually intriguing formally, it is the simultaneous sense of presence and absence they project that intrigues me. I am also drawn to the way they mark the passage of time shifting across lawns, sidewalks, and on the sides of houses. These shadows have become ghosts of my desires to own a home, to be able to freeze the precious moments of my son's babyhood and to make the passing of time feel more substantial, something I can hold on to. Collecting these shadows has become a practice in understanding these desires, but also appreciating where I am in the present moment. I chose to print these shadows on fifty paper houses to show the repetition of my daily walks, their visual uniqueness reflects the subtle variations one experiences in familiar spaces.