One of my favorite regions in this world is Central America. There’s a phrase there that gets tossed around often that I hope to embody someday: Tranquilo. I’m not exactly a tranquilo person, so it’s a grounding word for me.

When I landed in Phoenix last week, picked up my awesome soccer mom rental van (that would house lights, stands and a backdrop for a fun AARP lit shoot later in the week), and cruised up to Sun City, Arizona, I felt like I’d returned home to a second home. Once a documentary photographer works on a photo story or a photo essay for some time, even if it’s an intense or sad story, a place of comfort grows when we’re shooting it and returning to it. That’s my experience, at least.

I first stopped by a drug store to pick up some water and there I bumped into Snoopy, an Imperial Shih Tzu , sitting a shopping cart in the back-to-school aisle, while his owner Theresa Gottardo shopped. That scene right there was my first welcome back home to this quirky city of retirees I’ve grown to love so. I asked Theresa, who had a beautiful Italian accent, why she moved from New York City to Sun City and what she liked about Sun City.

“I enjoy the tranquility. I really enjoy every moment,” she said. That’s run of the mill to hear Sun Citians rave about Sun City.

and I get that.

It really is such an amazing place.

I hadn’t been back since March, and, over that time, while the temperatures rose, I beat myself up about where I wanted this project to go, what I was missing. When I showed the people my work so far I’d say, I know it’s lacking a closeness and an intimacy, before they could even decide that on their own. But whose rules are those? I’m shooting this project for myself, I don’t have any editors asking for a tight shot of a man on his death bed, or in a morgue.

After this last trip, I’m finally getting comfortable with what’s organically evolving, rather than pushing things that I think are supposed to happen and shooting photos to fill holes that I think populate this essay. I meet people, sleep in their homes, eat lunch with them, ride in their golf carts, giggle with their grandkids, listen to old stories. I’ve tried lawn bowling and waltzing. I’ve had a subject I spent a day with die. I’m growing as a person and a photographer and starting to let myself ignore the ‘hey-you-need-to-shoot-tighter’ nagging in the back of my head. I don’t want to force my vision of Sun City.

What first drew me to Sun City is what keeps drawing me back — the openness of people, the gorgeous backdrop, the energy, the oddity of embracing age and even ignoring age, the living of such full lives, the golf cart lanes along cactus-lined streets. That’s what I aim to show.

Here are some more images to give you a sense of place of my second home while I edit through the portraits and documentary images.

(The first Sun City: Sense of Place series from December can be found here.)

I’m waiting on a client to publish images from my second visit, and then I can edit my four trips so far into a more cohesive essay. In the meantime, some of my favorite images from two of my trips there can be found here.

One of my favorite regions in this world is Central America. There's a phrase there that gets tossed around often that I hope to embody someday: Tranquilo. I'm not exactly a tranquilo person, so it's a grounding word for me. When I landed in Phoenix last week, picked up my awesome soccer mom rental van ...