Postcards From Over the Hedge

I moved to Los Angeles during the Covid-19 lockdown. As a street photographer, my practice centers around documenting everyday life as a form of social anthropology. Isolated and unable to interact in person, my only sustained contact with new neighbors came via NextDoor, the online “hyperlocal networking service for neighborhoods.”

Broadly defined, “community” is a unified body of individuals. In my series Postcards From Over the Hedge, I juxtapose images I made on the streets of my L.A. neighborhood with unedited text from posts on my local NextDoor page. Through this curated combination, I explore the concept of community in a post-pandemic world.

The text and images were selected in an effort to highlight how humor, empathy, common cause, outrage, and fear can unite human beings. With this collection, I invite viewers to examine the role sense of place and interdependence play in transforming neighbors into a community. 

By looking more deeply at how my neighbors communicate when they aren’t face-to-face and creating art as a response, I seek greater understanding of the emotional bonds–positive and negative–that are forged online. And wonder if one day, this type of interplay will supplant organic, over-the-hedge interactions.