“Semi-Public Spaces” is a collection of photographs from Morocco, Thailand, Bosnia, and Los Angeles that centers on what shared spaces and connection look like across cultures. These photos were taken while I worked and lived amongst the people featured in them, and sought to understand the ways in which we were able to see one another clearly.
This page tells the story of the journey I took to pursue this deeper understanding, both through the photos themselves and through written descriptions of each location.
If you’re interested in purchasing prints, you can see the full exhibit guide here: Exhibit Guide
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The reason that I ended up in Morocco, to be honest, was a fluke. I applied to trade my photographic work for food and accommodation in a series of random places around the world that I felt sounded like unique experiences, and the only place that said yes was a kitesurfing camp in Dakhla, Morocco.
I had never heard of the town, I had never given any thought to kitesurfing, and I had never considered myself to be a professional photographer. What I knew I wanted to do was give myself the opportunity to create photos and explore communities I would never otherwise get to be a part of, and to do it all without spending all my money; so I said yes.
I took 4 flights over 36 hours (which has become my M.O.) and proceeded to spend the next 6 weeks living in and documenting the kitesurfing community and the camp guests while I was “on the clock,” and spending my free time exploring the Saharan community and focusing on how different their way of life was to the one that I was used to.
Through one of my best friends, Ryan, I found a connection to a hotel up in Marrakech that was looking for someone to help them create photos and videos. What was initially supposed to be 5 days of helping out with a few small projects, turned into 3 weeks of artist interviews, fancy galas, and lots of shitty French and Arabic on my part.
By night I was getting to stay in one of the most beautiful hotels I’ve ever seen, for free, and by day I was exploring what has become my favorite city that I’ve visited, meeting local vendors and playing soccer on the street with the neighborhood kids.
To me, there is something that feels different about Marrakech, the air feels light, the locals and the travelers feel equally open and curious, and there is art all around. Here, I got comfortable hanging out with the local kids, which gave me my favorite shot of Salah (age 6) throwing punches at the camera after a soccer match.
At the same time, I took the opportunity to explore the lives of those working in the nearby markets, befriending as many as I could as I made my daily rounds with my camera.
When I went to work in Bangkok, Thailand, I took a similar approach of befriending those in the spaces that I found interesting. While there, I spent my mornings working at a children’s theater school in exchange for my accommodation, and then I spent my afternoons taking long walks around the city and observing, eventually stumbling upon a communal sports area after getting some advice from a few locals.
The community that I found myself in here was a group of guys around my age, playing a game called Sepak Takraw, which is essentially a cross between volleyball and soccer - so no hands involved. I had never seen a sport quite like it - one where you regularly find the players contorting themselves mid-air and making plays while their faces are where their feet should be.
I started to spend a good amount of my evenings there at the sport-court under the highway, and became friends with the regulars. They let me practice new techniques and even play in a game or two, in which I had never felt more American and less capable.
The most important connection I made in Dakhla was to a group of oyster fishermen who lived and worked about a mile down the beach. These men, of which there were usually 8 or 10, lived all together in a cross between a house and a tent, that I have to guess was about 200 square feet. They spent their days working long hours in the Moroccan sun, moving heavy metallic bags of oysters and sorting them to be sold to markets and restaurants in Dakhla city, about an hour away.
Their nights were spent drinking tea, playing cards, watching soccer on their phones, and smoking cigarettes like their lives depended on it. I was fortunate enough to get to spend a few days documenting their work, and getting to talk to them about their goals. Though their work is arduous, they seemed fulfilled and content, and a large part of that I believe was due to the tight bond that they’ve created working together for the last few years on this project that they hope will become profitable in the near future.
In Bosnia, I found a great opportunity to make photos and videos for an animal rehabilitation center, which was on top of a mountain in the middle of a rural farming village. I spent many of my days here helping to build homes and taking care of the animals, but I also got to spend a lot of time with the local farmers, who devoted their summers to harvesting hay and vegetables to last them through the winter.
Again there was the language issue, which we eased by way of homemade alcohol and hand gestures. Though we didn’t manage deep conversation most of the time, a few of these locals allowed me to follow them throughout their days and document their lives, often in exchange for a little manual labor here and there. The outcome of that, fortunately for me, is a series of photos, videos, and interviews that I can use to help relive that experience of mine, and share their unique lives with the rest of the world.
At home in Los Angeles is where I first started taking photography seriously. In February of 2024, I stumbled into the rave scene downtown, and started becoming the designated photographer at each one I went to. For me, it was a place to make people happy by capturing them in a moment they cared about, and a great place to practice new techniques as I learned.
I quickly started to love how free it felt to shoot my subject in motion, without any need for the final product to resemble real life. What I ended up with, instead, was the ability to take the feeling that I felt in whatever warehouse the rave had been in, and have it show up just the same when I woke up the next day at 2 pm to see what I’d got.
