The Colors of Trujillo

For my first photography project, Shikumen of Shanghai, I explored the ruins of early 20th century houses named shikumen, taking photos of personal items left behind by families in haste. When I returned years later, the entire site was gone. My photos were now pieces of evidence of what once existed. That feeling never left me.

The Colors of Trujillo took this feeling to a personal level. I was taken to visit my family’s hometown of Trujillo, Peru every summer as a child—an experience shared by many immigrant families. Over time though, my trips got shorter and shorter and for many years I didn’t go. I finally returned in 2018 with my family, and it was wonderful, with me taking many photos of the buildings. The project focuses on Trujillo, its streets, and its colorful old buildings. What started as me taking photos of the buildings, listening to my father tell me their stories, learning what they used to be and who used to live in them, turned into something more. Every year I return, a building disappears or is in worse shape. Every year I return, I take more and more pictures. Now my photos are named after the buildings’ street addresses and I bring out their colors, imagining what they once looked like. These buildings house countless memories and cultural aspects of days gone by and have adopted new identities over time. My hope is that in the future these buildings are not only found in my photos, but are found still standing strong, still making up the colors of Trujillo.

Traveling & Living in Peru kindly published my piece on this story, you can check it out here.