J9 Suite
This is the place where everything slows, the J9 ranch in San Diego’s backcountry. My granddad was on the 1900 census here and as newlyweds in 1914 he and my grandmother moved onto the property and registered the J9 cattle brand. This is where my mother grew up and I’ve played my entire life. It’s high desert with oaks, pasture, chaparral, mountains, expansive sky, and more. At its height the ranch was 5,000 acres. Today it is a non-working ranch of 152 acres. Economics, family desires, fire, drought, Golden Spotted Oak Borer and other events have changed this place.
I struggle to hold onto the place and to let it go. I embrace its beauty and power and history, and am saddened by the losses. Capturing the essence of the ranch drives my image-making: a meditation on place, nature, and change. The ranch is my paradise and my storm.
I photograph for reasons Robert Adams says in Beauty In Photography, about his essays, “the effort we all make, photographers and non-photographers, to affirm life without lying about it. And then to behave in accord with our vision.” It is the beauty and truth of the place that I seek to better understand and express. As Barry Lopez, author and naturalist says, “Everything is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion.”
I photograph for reasons Robert Adams says in Beauty In Photography, about his essays, “the effort we all make, photographers and non-photographers, to affirm life without lying about it. And then to behave in accord with our vision.” It is the beauty and truth of the place that I seek to better understand and express. As Barry Lopez, author and naturalist says, “Everything is held together with stories. That is all that is holding us together, stories and compassion.”
