Sun City: A Sense of Place

There’s this thing about photographic freedom, that I’ve only really known recently, that tastes so so sweet. I’m drunk off it right now.

These past three months, I’ve worked on three personal projects. I’ve sat in a trailer with clowns for my Cole Bros. Circus essay, I traveled central Mexico and photographed Dia de los Meurtos, and this month, I spent a little over a week experiencing the life of a retiree in Sun City, Arizona.

I think this must be my newspaper recovery phase. I feel over-indulgent and greedy in photographing these feature stories just cuz. Just cuz I’m intrigued. This world is so huge and so full of intrigue. I got to shoot so many things that interested me as a staff photographer but so much of it was just filler and important projects never got the space they deserved. Coming from that background, I can’t tell you how exciting it is to find something that interests me and to have the gift of time to work on it and really invest myself into it. (Don’t get me wrong, this year been A LOT of hard work. a lot. I don’t give myself time off hardly ever, I sit in front of my computer editing and emailing and archiving for 12 hours straight most days. But oh my goodness, the pay-off of freedom is so sweet.) I hope this wonder and gratitude never grows old.

One of the things about personal projects for me is that they are almost never complete. Same goes for this one.

There is a scene in the first moments of the movie The Savages that led me to Sun City. Just 30 seconds of footage that left my eyes wide open and sent me googling about the place and then on an airplane and in a cheap hotel for a week. But I’m going to tell you about that unique place tomorrow.

Just enjoy a some outtakes that give you a sense of place for now:

Sun City: A Sense of Place