San Antonio, Texas: 2019

The only thing I remember about this photo was that it was 117 degrees out and I was extremely overheated and unhappy. I only actually stopped along this road that we were walking to get some shade.

Just before going to San Antonio, Texas in August of 2019, I had seen a movie in theater with some coworkers. It was Once Upon A Time In Hollywood and I honestly hated it. But the design and overall vibe of the film stuck with me and was in the back of my mind while I was shooting in Texas. There wasn’t a spot for these pictures on my main work page, but I enjoy them too much to leave them unseen.

These two photos were shot in Gruen (pronounced ‘green’), Texas. Stylistically, my photographs in Texas were very different from my usual, fully saturated style. Maybe it was the intense heat that attributed to the desaturated, warm tones.

Remember this photo from the main page? It was taken in Texas at the house that we were staying at. We were staying with relatives and their house design and decor was still very dated in the 1970s. But the backyard and pool looked uncannily like the house in the Tarantino film. So I really felt immersed in the whole aesthetic. But, unlike us, those relatives don’t keep their AC at igloo temperatures. So it was hot inside and we spent a lot of time outside in the pool. She saw me photographing - just so I had personal pics of the trip - and threw her shoe at me.

For some reason, all I craved in the Texas heat was cold Coca-Colas. No idea why since I don’t usually drink it.

On the first day in Texas, we visited the San Antonio missions. These ruins were unbelievably cool to see and photograph and there is a lot of history behind them to research. One of the things that I was disappointed to discover in Texas was that the Alamo and the area surrounding it had become super commercialized. So I was glad that the San Antonio missions had been left alone as they were.

I unintentionally brought back my typical saturated style for the photographs I took while on the USS Lexington. The ship itself was actually pretty void of color. But when I was looking through the lens a lot jumped out at me. It was beautiful weather in Corpus Christi, Texas. We explored the entire ship and most spaces were pretty tight, so a majority of the photos are just for personal documentation. But I did manage to get a couple of good shots. Especially once we got out onto the flight deck.