North America

I was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1975- the first and only child to first generation immigrant parents. My father was a young Chilean pediatrician working at Meharry Medical College and my mother, a Vietnamese accountant and MBA working for the Internal Revenue Service. At the age of 3, we moved to New Orleans, Louisiana.

Gallery-at-a-Glance

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The Green Monsta'

From 2002-2006 I lived in Boston, MA where I was doing my residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology. The Green Monster is a popular nickname for the 37.2-foot-high (11.3 m) left field wall at Fenway Park, home to the Boston Red Sox baseball team; just blocks from my house.

#Boston #Canon

Iron Horse

Donal and I went to Tulane University in New Orleans together. An intimidating looking man with the heart of a teddy bear. He loved his ’79 Harley Shovelhead and took immaculate care of it.

#NewOrleans #ZeissIkon

My Horizons

From 1998-2002 I studied in Puerto Rico at the Ponce School of Medicine. This shot was taken in Old San Juan on one of the many weekends spent there in between exams.

#SanJuan #PuertoRico #ZeissIkon

Flight Path

Taken of the Golden Gate Bridge on a cruise through the San Francisco Bay. The title was chosen for 2 reasons, 1) the plane in the upper left corner and 2) a friend of mine used to fly us in his helicopter UNDER this bridge!

#SanFrancisco #Canon

Remembering Katrina

I lived in New Orleans as a child and again as a young adult. I would consider it my home in the US. Katrina was a devastating hurricane that killed over a thousand and devastated the lives of many. The “X” symbol shown (and here memorialized) was spray painted on many of the houses during the search and rescue operations and would show when it was searched, who searched it and how many bodies were found.

#NewOrleans #Olympus

Resilient

One family, whose lives were undoubtedly changed by Hurricane Katrina.

#NewOrleans #Canon

So Close, yet so far...

Taken from inside Alcatraz Prison in San Francisco, I have always imagined how difficult it must have been for inmates, looking at the free world just outside their cell window.

#Alcatraz #SanFrancisco #Canon

The Yard

As a child, I was always fascinated by stories of Alcatraz Prison. I had seen many movies and read countless books about The Rock. Standing here, in the Yard of the famous penitentiary and seeing this lonesome, solitary figure, I captured what I imagine it felt like to be locked up there.

#Alcatraz #SanFrancisco #Canon

Manchas de Platano

“Manchas de Platano” literally translated means “Stains/Bruises of Plantain” and is used by Puerto Ricans to proudly boast that they are from the island. Plantains are one of the staple foods of Puerto Rico.

#Ponce #PuertoRico #ZeissIkon

A streetcar named desire....

New Orleans’ St. Charles Streetcar Line is the world’s oldest continuously operated electric railway line. Electric operation began in 1893 when streetcars took over after 20 years of horsecar operation.

#NewOrleans #Olympus

A Break from Beauty

My beautiful niece Bella enjoying her milk shake.

#Birmingham #Alabama #Canon

Route 66

Invoking the spirit of the vast stretches of road across the US.

#TheGorge #Washington #Olympus

Pyros

I have always been fascinated by fireworks. Here a group of pyrotechnicians put on a 4th of July celebration.

#TheGorge #Washington #Olympus

Checkmates

Mother and daughter battle of wits…

#Hoboken #NewJersey #Olympus

Graduation

Graduation ceremony at Tulane University, at the New Orleans Convention Center. Sadly, a place now remembered for the atrocities that happened during the Katrina Hurricane evacuations.

#NewOrleans #Leica

Guanica

#Guanica #PuertoRico #Leica

No Parking

#LosAngeles #Leica

Death Valley

I took this picture while interviewing for a residency position in Arizona. I spent an hour hiking alone looking for the perfect vantage point to take this picture as the sun was setting. As the light started to quickly dissipate and the temperature quickly to drop, I became acutely aware that I was alone and wouldn’t know how to get back to my car in the dark.

#Sedona #Arizona #ZeissIkon

summer days

Adolescents enjoying the last rays of sunlight in Ponce, Puerto Rico.

#Ponce #PuertoRico #ZeissIkon

The Birds

Inspired by Hitchcock, a winter day on the beaches of Los Angeles.

#LosAngeles #ZeissIkon

"North America" Continued

My father had got a position to teach Nutrition and International public health at Tulane School of Public Health. Coming to the US with very little to their names, my parents struggled to provide me with every opportunity. I was thrust into every extracurricular activity from ballet to tap dance, to choir, to piano to name a few. It was an incredible undertaking for my parents to find the time in their busy schedules to shuttle me from soccer practice to karate.

After spending my adolescence in Nairobi, Kenya (AFRICA), I moved back to New Orleans to start at Tulane University where I majored in Pre-Medicine, Sociology and Spanish. It was here that I took my first formal photography course and where the love affair began.

In 1998, I started graduate studies at the Ponce School of Medicine. When I got accepted to medical school, I wasn’t sure I even wanted to go along with it. At that time, I was well grounded in Santiago, Chile for a year break after University (SOUTH AMERICA). I had a wonderful girlfriend, was working as a model, was offered a job as a photographer for a fashion magazine, and was training to be a volunteer fireman; things really seemed to be going well for me. What finally resonated in my mind was the thought “You can be a doctor and a photographer, but you can’t be a photographer and a doctor”. Little did I know that I would be faced with a similar decision almost 20 years later…

Needless to say, the transition was very difficult. I hated the first years of med school. I doubted my decision and spent time, instead of studying, selling my photos to my classmates and even hosting exhibitions at the local mall. Even my professors asked me why I was studying medicine – as photography was clearly my passion.

It was no secret to anyone that if National Geographic had called me, I would have been on the next flight out.

At around this time, I was fortunate enough to be invited by my friend to attend a photo shoot for the fashion magazine “Mademoiselle”. Seeing the entire process of a real professional photo shoot mesmerized me. After the shoot, sharing beers with the photographer, I told him how lucky he was and how much I envied his life. He asked me what I was doing and I told him studying medicine. He then proceeded to give me some advice that changed the course of my life. He told me that I should stay in medicine, that all the glitz and the glamour in photography wears off over time and what was once a creative outlet for him had now become a job -a daily stressful exercise in HAVING to produce perfect pictures. “For you, photography will always be your escape, your passion…if you make it into your career, you will lose that.” It was sound advice and even though, for many years, I had to put away my cameras to focus on my studies, I am glad for the path that I then chose to take.