“objects in mirror are closer than they appear / photos of my father” is a project straightforward in its approach but layered in nuance.

As the second half of the title the work is built on an archive of images I have been creating of my father since 2018. In those years, years where I still lived in California close to my father, I used the camera as a tool to document his fight with Machado-Joseph disease (MJD), a rare neurodegenerative disease that has taken the lives of my grandma and my father’s two brothers. Documentary photography became a way to get closer to my dad, to investigate into the condition and being of a recently disabled man whose identity had been so built on his work, independence, and active lifestyle, a man who has watched his own loved ones fight and lose their battle with this disease.

“objects in mirror are closer than they appear” refers to my own proximity to this disease. Inheriting the genes for this disease has informed not only how I view and make images of my father but many of my life choices. My closeness with my father, while beautiful, can often feel confronting and scary, like I am looking into some not-so-distant future. And even though it’s not his fault, I know my dad feels guilty about this. This amalgamation of love, guilt, and fear is inherent in our relationship. Since moving to The Netherlands in 2019, moments with my father became less frequent. Documented snapshots of my dad grew into a practice of intentional portraiture to immortalize our time together.

Since my father’s passing in February 2026, family archives have allowed me to form a new visual relationship with my father.