​

This series highlights some of California history’s lesser known inhabitants. Their stories, as is the case with people of any time, are complicated and may draw inspiration, scorn, or a little of both. It is not my intention to make any moral judgement in the portrayals of these individuals, but to simply highlight the place, time, and context in which they found themselves. 

 

In an attempt to connect their times with ours, each historic figure has been superimposed in front of backdrops very familiar to our 21st Century eyes: shopping centers, subdivisions, thoroughfares, and skyscrapers which now occupy many of the mountains, meadows, and city streets on which these individuals once tread. Our stories and theirs occur in the same geographic locations, but are set worlds apart by the passage of time and a social and cultural landscape constantly being formed and re-worked by the builders and trendsetters of each passing generation. Still there are constants that tie us across time: the call of a scrub jay, the crash of waves, the fresh smell of pine, the dry summer heat, or the fog rolling in off of the Pacific.