“Pura vida. That’s all the Spanish you need to know here.”
That is the advice I received when I made my first trip to Costa Rica. Since then I made it my ongoing goal to capture this Pura Vida, this pure life, that permeates the culture and the lives of the people of Costa Rica. I wanted to explore how the people live their lives, the city and environment around them. They’ve lived side by side with nature as a nation, and cherish it as something to be protected. I wanted to symbolize this by framing my images with nature, much in the same way the people are themselves. These images are set in the nation’s capital of San Jose, which is a place that most guidebooks tell you not to frequent. However, what I found there was the heart of what Pura Vida really meant.
Currently on display in the Clark Memorial Library at Shawnee State University, Portsmouth OH
In the press:
Portsmouth Daily Times
Clark Memorial Library News
