You Can't Say I Never Take You Anywhere

Three years of wandering with a camera..

It all began with the first photo. Adam was two and a half, and Teresa was four and a half. March 24, 2007 — a cool early spring day in Southern California. We spent the afternoon at Almansor Park, where ducks and other birds glide around the man-made lake. The plan was simple: feed the ducks. We brought half a loaf of bread and stood near the water tossing small pieces while the birds hurried toward us. It was one of those days that felt completely ordinary — just a father spending a quiet afternoon with his kids. At some point I lifted the camera and took a photograph of Adam and Teresa walking toward the lake. When I looked at the image later, something about it stopped me. The composition. The quietness of the moment. The way the two small figures seemed to be walking into the world ahead of them. The thought that crossed my mind was simple. *That shot is poetic, artistic, and epic.* And in that moment an idea struck. And stuck. What if I kept photographing them like this everywhere we went? Not posed portraits. Not staged family photos. Just the two of them standing together, facing whatever place we happened to visit. That day unknowingly started a small tradition that would last four years. Over time the project became a running joke between the three of us. Whenever we arrived somewhere interesting, I would raise the camera and simply say: “You can’t say…” Before I could even finish the sentence, Adam and Teresa already knew the rule. They would turn away from the camera, stand next to each other, and face whatever was in front of them — the ocean, a stadium, a museum, a garden, or a city street. They had been trained. “You can’t say…” And the rest filled itself in. *You can’t say I never take you anywhere.* Over the next four years I took nearly two hundred photographs across Southern California. From Dodger games to beaches and piers. From the Rose Parade to the relaxed atmosphere of State Street in Santa Barbara. From local museums and botanical gardens to the grounds of the Santa Anita racetrack. Every place had the same rule. Two kids. Side by side. Facing the world.