Colin and Poppy

While making this portrait Colin’s daughter, Poppy, kept asking for “more bubbles.” A person attending the kite festival came over and blew bubbles for her. She then poured some of her own bubble liquid into Poppy’s empty container.

“My name is Colin and I’ve lived in LA for about 9 years. To put it simply, it is important to protect public parks because in a world where everything is always trending away from nature, preserving little bits of greenery in our urban area is a commitment to not wiping out the planet as we know it. More tangible reasons are because everybody has kids and we need safe places for them to play. We need to preserve their understanding and accessibility to nature. How tragic would it be for a generation to go by and not realize that the natural state of things is not concrete and plastic.

I bring Poppy here because in spaces like this everybody is generally happy, relaxed, and at peace. It’s maybe more challenging to find a place that can hold a group of people this large where the atmosphere is calm. If you’re in a crowded metropolitan area people are in the hustle and bustle, they’re moving too quickly, not thinking about people around them. In a place like a park there’s a general sense of public togetherness and ease and relaxation; especially when there are a lot of families around you are paying attention to other people’s kids too. It feels more generally supportive as a community in this environment.”