Things have started making a lot more sense to me lately.

Over the course of this summer, I've been strategically merging my Archival Recordings photography project into my larger creative practice (Nonstndrd Creative). I'm not going to lie, it's been a scary transition. Before the pandemic upended everything, my photography was how I broke through as a creative on the larger stage. As a result, most of my professional accolades are centered around my photographic work and although I've been an artist/designer for a longer period of time, it's hard to change up something that's working. But as photo opportunities started to dry up, I dove back into making art and made pushing my design career forward my main focus, with the goal of combining these two practices in a way that was representative of my entire creative worldview. I'm happy to share that tumultuous process has finally come to a conclusion...

Starting today, the Procsss newsletter that you are reading will also feature work from Archival Recordings. While I'm discontinuing the standalone Archival Recordings newsletter, the core project will continue in perpetuity.

Photography is a craft that is integral to all of the work I produce in all other mediums and I remain dedicated to documenting Los Angeles from street level. Simply put, I will never stop being a photographer and the Archival Recordings project is here to stay.

How does this affect the newsletter that you are reading at this moment? Well friend, I'm glad that you asked that. In the short term, this shift is coming with a few other changes that I hope will improve your reading experience:

1. Every PROCSSS newsletter will include an Archival Recordings section featuring both new work and gems from my archive of L.A. photography going back 20+ years.
2. There will be a newsletter coming out every two weeks instead of monthly.
3. In the near future, I'll be introducing a new paid tier that I will use to publish digital zines featuring new work.
4. Later this year, a dedicated YouTube channel and Patreon are in the works as well. More info coming on these two endeavors soon.

L.A. Taco X Nonstndrd Creative

This past week, a zine that I designed and provided the cover photo for was released. L.A. Taco magazine features stories from their writers covering real Los Angeles. I've known and respected the work that they have done over the years and I am really proud of how this collaboration turned out. They are one of the few independent news organizations covering the ICE raids and the effect they are having on life in the city. I also want to give a shout out to the good people at Nonstop Printing for the amazing job they did on the printing.

Archival Recordings 43 | Cruel Summer

Although this entry of Archival Recordings is titled "Cruel Summer", the images that I'm sharing are from the very beginning of 2025. The reason is that I'm still processing the events of this year and how much they have impacted daily life in Los Angeles.

I made these images before the city faced the challenges that have come to define this year while out taking pictures with my good friend (and excellent photographer) Halline Overby. They were shot in Echo Park the week before the fires in Altadena and Palisades devastated those respective communities. It was also before the ICE raids began so that horror (and the grassroots response to it) had yet to materialize.

That time and headspace seem so distant from the current state of the world that it may as well be from a movie or something.