Kevin Baca

My current project started back in 2021 when I was primarily shooting street photography around the neighborhoods of San Diego that border Balboa Park. Every so often when out shooting, I'd reach the end of a road and catch myself amongst towering ornamental eucalyptus, looking down into a canyon of native sage scrub. After a while I noticed that I tended to gravitate toward these pockets of nature with no initial intention of photographing them. That was until I moved into an apartment in Hillcrest a couple blocks away from Marston Canyon. I decided one day to bring my camera on an afternoon walk through Marston and I was mesmerized. I felt a meditative stillness while traversing the thin trails noticing birds fly from bush to bush. I heard distant sounds from homes lined up along the edges of the canyon. People playing instruments, talking with loved ones, and tending to their gardens. The vicinity of this natural space to humans and how they interacted drew my interest. I was also intrigued by the fact that I had never heard about any of these canyons, despite being raised in San Diego County. It was as if these areas were neglected by popular media because they weren't the usual immaculate beach landscape. Although not as archetypically beautiful as a coast line these canyons are vital to native animals and provide the people of San Diego some slightly exclusive oases to explore.