I’ve never left a @latinationmedia party early 🙂↕️ While I’m always excited to be at the studio, Villa’s Tacos, innovative creators, a perfect spring day, and a panel with @el_tragon_de_los_angeles made this time particularly special.
Thanks to @latinationmedia , @newmediaventure , and @genzforchange for putting all of this together! If we got the chance to talk, thank you for having a fun conversation with me 🫶🏼
Running around the Westside these last few months with Faizah has been so energizing. Local politics are one of the best vehicles to connect with a city and find other people in the community that are engaged in meaningful work.
Every single person I’ve met through this campaign has one thing in common: they care. And that goes a long way, because the people that care are the ones that look to enact change. Whether or not someone is brand new or has been engaged with their cause for a long time, they’re invested in making our city function better and more equitable for all Angelenos.
I’m confident Faizah can represent the everyday citizen’s best interests on city council and the coalition that she’s established through this campaign will remain engaged in the community long after the election is over. If you’re in West LA, then please cast your vote for her from May 5 to June 2.
If you’re not, then I encourage you to see what’s happening in your neighborhood and get involved. You can do it!
From meeting each other on Discord in 2024 to seeing the finishing touches on her latest mural in 2026 🎨
With Linkin Park’s From Zero on repeat, we each spent all day doing our respective things. They would paint, I would make photos. They mixed colors, I moved lights around. All the while, passersby would smile into the space giving Rebekah her props for creating something timely, important, and hopeful. We didn’t talk very much until the mural was finished, but, once it was, we had a sweet time making some portraits and archival images of the 5-panel masterpiece
Shoutout to Rebekah for inviting me to hang out and major shoutout to @arttimepresents for bringing us together. They facilitate a support group and server for gender expansive artists where the two of us met. I encourage any of my gender non-conforming creative homies to get connected 🤞🏼
Recently had the opportunity to do some portraits for the lead, composer, and directors from @akotsk
Everyone taped an interview with Variety before their picture, so it was a lot of fun to work with them after I got to hear more about their experience working on the project
Big thanks to @shannonwarnerevents for the invitation and @orlafloralstudio for the incredible recreation of the tree from the show
And, as always, heaps of love to @goodluckcrew . Thank you @somewhere_in_june for being my digi tech and to @cirruscam for the assist
I’m always grateful whenever I’m invited to snap some photos of people enjoying themselves, and there are few experiences more enjoyable than riding a bike (or any people-powered means of transportation) on the open road without cars flying past you at breakneck speeds 🚲
CicLAvia comes back to the Westside on Sunday, April 26th! While not an official holiday, I treat it like one 🙂↕️ Even if it’s only for an hour, I make it a point to get out to the route and see my friends.
Shoutout to CicLAvia for helping people imagine what a city built for pedestrians can look like. While I already love everything Los Angeles is, I hope all of us can keep doing what we can to fully realize everything that the city could be
Extra shoutouts to everyone that wears a helmet, wired headphone users, the dogs rolling with their human companions, the local businesses and organizations that come out to table, and my fisheye lens. See y’all out there ☀️
Some of my favorites from Discostan at La Zona Rosa back in January. Arshia and Jeremy at Discostan put together some of the favorite events I get to attend, let alone cover. I can’t put it any better than how Arshia explains it on the Discostan site, so I’ll drop the quote here: “Discostan is a diasporic discotheque which imagines past, present and future soundscapes from Beirut to Bangkok via Bombay.”
Given that we are still witnessing vile attempts to occupy more land, steal more resources, and murder innocents from within the imperial core, the disconnect from my cultural roots has metastasized into an immeasurable grief. As a product of the colonial project and a member of the Lebanese diaspora, I didn’t understand what I had lost until I started to see it. In peers, in language, and in art.
The idea of “joy as resistance” falls flat for me. If we’re not looking to build alternative networks of care or challenge the status quo, then where is that joy going? With that said though, I can’t understate the importance of revelry within your community. Fight until you’re tired. Dance your heart out. Rest as much as you need. And get up and fight again, and again, and again.
Some of my favorites from an annual studio session with Maya 🌞
I’m so fortunate to have friends and peers that I’ve been collaborating with for so long. Maya and I have known each other for nearly ten years and she’s one of the first people I ever made portraits for
Thanks for trusting me with your likeness, Maya 🫶🏼
Got to see Bachelor Manor in person and make some portraits over the pool for #HGTVBachelorMansionTakeover
My favorite part of running a portrait moment is getting to chat with everyone at the party. I love all the little conversations I get to be a part of. Beautiful photos are nice, but it’s the people I get to connect with that make every event special
If you stopped by, thank you! Additional thanks to @shannonwarnerevents and @superjuice for putting this event together and inviting our team, @goodluckcrew 🍀
I tried to find as many tags as I could. Sorry if I missed you, but it was great meeting everyone 🌞
Still thinking about the wonderful folx that stopped by my portrait booth at SEEN. It was so, so special to make these images of queer and trans people loving themselves and one another. The amount of times I caught myself smiling and tearing up during the edit grounded me in how grateful I am for my work
I hope all gender non-conforming people are having the most pleasant Trans Day of Visibility they could have right now. With that, I’d be remiss to not acknowledge the deluge of hatred and vitriol getting directed at our community. And it’s not only people on the far-right. Your garden variety of establishment liberals and other so-called “progressives” are looking to build inroads with conservatives to maintain the status quo that has landed us in the midst of multiple genocides, endless war, and a warming planet
I encourage anyone that identifies within the LGBTQIA+ umbrella to never settle for anything less than unconditional love and respect. Commune with each other. Take care of each other. Fight for each other
Happy to share some portraits for the Q Agenda on @latinationqueer ! It’s such a treat to listen in on their conversations in real time. But my favorite part of production days is getting to make portraits for the hosts and our guests. I’m eternally grateful to Lalo, Oscar, and Markie at the studio for always going all out for the set builds. And thank you to @auraquiroz , as always, for the call
I’ve been working with @latinationmedia for so many of their productions this year. And it’s always such a lovely experience 😇 Thank you for always trusting my vision and giving me the creative freedom to make some cool stuff. Can’t wait for next year 🤞🏼
