PERIPHERAL

an ode to the American River

Apr 12, 2026

As many of you have seen in past articles or perhaps on my website, I have been documenting the Lower American River for a few years now. This body of work constantly ebbed and flowed and had taken on different shapes and sizes, like that of a river’s meander. A portion of the American River Parkway was our backyard for about 2 1/2 years but that has changed now that we recently moved into a house on the other side of town. In a way, this most recent move served as the official ending for this project. I don’t anticipate visiting that portion of the river in the near future and that’s okay.. I feel like I got so much out of that sliver of the parkway and learned so much about myself and my photographic journey. The river became a sort of comforting friend for me. It forced me to be more in tune with the slight changes of my surroundings throughout the year. It taught me to slow down and take it all in. And most importantly, it showed me the duality of fragility and resilience that these habitats exhibit and how important it is to treat Mother Nature with love and respect.

The American River will forever be a dear friend to me.

So here it is.. the final form of this project.

Welcome to PERIPHERAL:

A hidden world on the periphery of both my mind and the city I live in; always there, often overlooked. I escape the suburban redundancy by entering a forcibly secluded chaos of jam-packed overgrowth bursting at the seams. The seams: man-made levees for flood control on both sides of the winding river that run parallel with the echoing overpasses that divide these habitats into their own zones unintentionally. The unmarked paths provide confined open spaces to detach from it all. For brief moments, I can hear the gusts of wind shaking the leaves and tall grasses as they sway back and forth. Birdsong is exchanged up in the canopy while other critters rustle all around. Ducks float together in the ponds and lagoons. Seasons come and go while the faded hum of traffic and overhead power lines buzz all around; reminding me that I am not so secluded after all.