My project for CANON STUDENT DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME 2023
Last year, having finished high school, I left for Los Angeles where I studied for 4 months. At the end of this period, my family joined me and together we took a road trip along the Californian coast. During this road trip, striving to distance myself as much as possible from the figure of the tourist (which I actually was), I had the opportunity to experience and document the true Californian culture in all of its aspects, including and especially the more particular and negative aspects that often tend to be overlooked by us ‘tourists’.
As a result, my curiosity as to what life was like on the other side of the ocean, combined with my passion for documentary photography, gave birth to this project: "California unfiltered", the nature of which, as the name also suggests, is to document the authentic Californian lifestyle, avoiding any sort of filter that unfortunately social networks and television have now gotten us accustomed to. Furthermore, I also hope that with some of the following photographs I have succeeded in putting a face to the much-talked-about and highly stereotyped phenomenon of "homelessness", which is often described, sometimes with misleading connotations, without ever receiving a worthy, unfiltered in-depth examination.
Guardians of the street
Flower lady
Dancing on the stars
Waiting for the bus
On the other side of the fence
Positivity Sparkles
The biker from the coast
Hang Loose
On the way to work
Gloves for the hygiene
On the hook
The dog sitters
Best friends
The musician’s rest
Overthinking
Daily routine
Spring cleaning
Last run
Night time
