I am a photographer living in Los Angeles, CA. I am a Mexican immigrant who arrived in the U.S. at the age of 6. Today, while I feel fully integrated in every day life as an American, I am in limbo with a DACA permit that offers no real path to citizenship but rather stalls us from becoming a citizen. As a first generation immigrant, finding a way to support the family prevented me from acquiring an education, but I still follow my passion for photography in my spare time. This obsessive drive helped me delve into it with all of the love and admiration for the art and allowed me to explore and become a self taught photographer. I am greatly inspired by the old masters from Magnum Photos and others. I take an approach that allows me to capture photos in my own way while paying attention to the work I am creating. It is important to me to not just take a nice photo, although if I encounter a nice moment I will not shy away from capturing the image. A nice photo is just that, a nice photo. When I can create a body of work I find it very important to capture in a humanistic way. There is a slight documentary element to the work but interacting with the subject is just as fulfilling as taking the photo. Everyone has a story to tell and a reason for being, even in themed work. I also love exploring and finding new things in new places and taking the camera with me not only lets me reflect on myself and who I am when I look at an image, but the images themselves are a testament to my presence. I was there.