California
Ashley
Alhambra, CA
Ashley is from Chicago, born to Haitian parents, but she grew up in Bloomington, IL. She moved to LA to try to get into the film industry, and she is now the coordinator at a large production company.
Liz & Jeffrey
Berkeley, CA
I found Liz and Jeffrey on a very warm (by Berkeley standards) night at Cesar Chavez Park. I was walking with two friends when we spotted their amazing setup. I went over to say hello, and Jeffrey immediately started explaining how Liz had surprised him. Liz told me she was determined to have a good old-fashioned date night—no phones, no news, no distractions. (That is until I showed up, but I promise I didn’t stay long.)
Pat, Jenny & kids
Coronado, CA
While in California, I popped in to see my “bonus cousin,” Jenny (she’s my cousin’s sister in law) and her family. Her husband, Pat, is an officer in the Navy, and right now he’s stationed on Coronado Island. The whole family—including Mickey, 7, and Elliot, 5—paused what they were doing to take me on a tour, and after we spent a little bit looking at the antique jets on display, Pat asked me if I wanted to see the real jets. (Spoiler: I did.)
Chris, Sara & Kids
Coronado, CA
Chris was just days away from retiring at the end of a 29-year career in the Navy's explosive ordinance disposal unit when I photographed the family in September. He and his wife, Sara, have been married for 18 years and have lived in 7 or 8 places together. However, for the last 6 years, they’ve been in Coronado, CA, so their kids—James, 11, and Paige, 9—really know it as home.
Nigel
Glendale, CA
Nigel is from the UK, but he and his family had been living in Australia before they moved to LA two weeks before the 2016 elections. Yep, two weeks before. All his new friends and colleagues keep saying, "It isn't always like this, we promise.”
Alexandra & Maik
Lee Vining, CA
I met Alexandra and Maik with their two children—Kais, 4, and Lila, 2—and 4-month old pup, Luna, at a coffee shop in Lee Vining, California. Something just made me want to talk to them…
Staci
Lee Vining, CA
I finally met a solo female traveler—and in a VAN! Okay, technically Staci isn’t currently solo, but she was until a month ago when she met another nomadic, car-living climber in Yosemite. But that hadn’t been part of her plan.
Gabriel
Los Angeles, CA
When Gabriel arrived in the U.S. six years ago from his native Brazil — artist visa and his sweet pup Bartot in tow — he quickly hit the road, singing and playing guitar with his band, @nametheband and taking in the vastness of his new home.
Mel
Los Angeles, CA
I met up with Mel in LA on the recommendation of my brother. She was his roommate in Madison, WI, back in the day, but she left Wisconsin years ago to attend film school out west. As we started talking, we realized that more than having my brother in common, we share an affinity for taking big leaps and hoping things work out.
Barbie
Los Angeles, CA
I met this beauty—Barbie, aka, Gangsta Granny—when I was visiting Pastor Blue on Skid Row in LA (you may remember him from a previous post). She lives there in a tent, but it was evident right away that GG is used to being in front of a camera. She told me she’d once modeled for Vogue back in the day. She was a farm girl who was “discovered.” She said even then her preferred farm girl uniform was jeans and boots (just like what she had on the day I met her), but her agency gave her a suit to wear when she went out on modeling auditions. She wore it once and then went back to her uniform, they should have known—she has style, and she does it her way.
Blue
Los Angeles, CA
"It's a place that can either be heaven or hell," Pastor Blue says of LA’s Skid Row, where he’s been living for about a year and a half. His home is his van, which he parks in front of a large tent set up on the sidewalk, and he’s rapidly become an institution in this section of the community—offering a spot of peace amidst the chaos around him.
England
Mariposa County, CA
“Yosemite just feels like home,” England told me when I encountered him after what had been an exhausting hike for me—7.5 miles to the summit of Clouds Rest.
Paresh, Deepa & kids
Mariposa County, CA
I stayed near the east entrance of Yosemite for three weeks, and I was so lucky to get in some hikes in the park before the Creek Fire brought in the smoke and apocalyptic-looking skies.
Guleed
Mono County, CA
Guleed took a climate science class in college, and the moment he calculated that the amount of fossil fuels/carbon we're putting into the atmosphere is more than it can take, he was intrigued. He finished his undergrad at the University of Arizona and interned the summer before his senior year at Columbia University, where he continued to get his graduate degree. Since then he’s had a career as a geologist.
Erick
San Diego, CA
Erick started this chalk art project on his San Diego sidewalk during the quarantine as something to share with his kids. While the kids’ interest waned—they quickly realized the art was a barrier to their scooter space in front of the house—Erick’s interest in it has kept steady, and it’s allowed him to meet a lot of his neighbors as they stop by to see his work. While I was there, people came to talk and take pictures, and one even brought a friend to see the work. (I actually forgot to take a legit photo of the finished work, so mine is a little wonky.)
Stan
Tuolumne County, CA
I caught up with Stan just after seeing an American black bear on the trail in Yosemite. I was by myself, and that was my first bear sighting in my many years of hiking. Black bears are generally uninterested in humans, so all you have to do is scare them, but I was still embarrassingly overly relieved to run into Stan, who had been camping just outside the park with his brother and a friend and was on his way to fish.
Emily, Mike & kids
Tuolumne County, CA
Michael, 11, looked at me with wide eyes as I was about to pass him and his family on the trail in Yosemite. “Excuse me,” he said, "but do you know about how much longer?”