Commissioned Photography · Cultural Storytelling · 2026
Giants of
San Diego
I entered each studio to make portraits. What stayed with me was the life around the work.
Commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego for Giants of San Diego, an editorial series connected to the museum's presentation of Giants: Art from the Dean Collection, I photographed six San Diego artists in the spaces where they create.
Project Details
2026The Assignment
Beyond the
portrait.
The commission brought me into the working spaces of six artists. Rather than treating each session as a standalone portrait, I looked for the relationships between each person, their practice, and the things they keep close.
Family photographs, tools, unfinished work, music, and the arrangement of a room became part of the visual story. The challenge was to give every artist a distinct presence while making the images feel like one considered series.
01 / Observe
Start with the environment.
Look at the studio as a portrait in its own right: objects, light, materials, and the details that reveal how someone works.
02 / Connect
Make room for the person.
Let conversation and observation shape the session, rather than asking every artist to inhabit the same predetermined image.
03 / Edit
Build a cohesive series.
Sequence portraits with environmental details so each story stands independently and contributes to a larger view of the community.
The Portrait Series / Six Artists
The people
behind the work.
Different disciplines, different rooms, different ways of making. Each session called for its own attention.
Artist 01 / 06
Chata
Photographer · Dean Collection
Family photographs, a beach snapshot from the 1960s, and the first house her family bought. The portrait extends beyond the artist to the images that shaped her sense of belonging.
Artist 02 / 06
Stephen Williams
Abstract Painter · Art Therapy Practitioner
His work with young people introduced another dimension of the studio: learning through experimentation and allowing children to surprise the adults around them.
Artist 03 / 06
Maxx Moses
Visual Artist · Community Educator
Music playing. Incense burning. The environment already had a rhythm. Rather than impose one, I photographed what was present.
Artist 04 / 06
Christopher Lloyd Tucker
Digital Artist · Sculptor
Digital planning meets physical making. The images move between the artist and the materials that give the work its form.
Artist 05 / 06
Misty Hawkins
Painter · Charcoal · Oil
Portraits of her father and dogs she has loved share space with the work. The studio becomes a record of relationships and memory.
Artist 06 / 06
Manuelita Brown
Sculptor
Her sculptures begin with people she loves and remembers. The photographs attend to the connection between the maker, the material, and the people behind the work.
Reflection
There are giants
everywhere.
I had lived in San Diego for years without knowing most of these artists. The commission reminded me that documenting a creative community begins with paying attention to the people already shaping it.
Across six studios, the work became an exercise in consistency without sameness: bringing a clear photographic perspective while letting each artist's life and practice determine what mattered in the frame.