There’s Nothing to See Here is the first of two sister zines that form a love/hate letter to the suburb I grew up and live in. Every single picture was taken either on my street or on the next street over, so I was drawing from a pretty small area, and each of the photos in There’s Nothing to See Here were taken before I moved out of my parents’ house for the first time. This is a reflection on what it felt like to grow up here, especially seeing as I never wanted to move here in the first place; how I felt about coming into my own as a photographer here, seeing as there was nowhere else to go during the pandemic; and how I felt about moving away, after so many years of wanting to leave.

Where There’s Nothing to See Here asks a question, Nothing Happens Here gives an answer. The first zine asks, why?? Why are the suburbs like this? Why would anyone choose to live there? Why, why, why? Nothing Happens Here attempts to answer all of those questions. The focus is on how it felt to move back to the suburbs and live at home again after spending almost a year in another city. The locations are the same; the limitations are the same, but the aesthetic is different. All of these pictures were taken after I moved out of my parents’ house for the first time, either while on visits back home or after moving back here more permanently. It’s a reflection on my shifting view on the role of suburbia, how living here affected my photographic voice, and how moving away and back again felt as someone who never travels.

View some pictures from these zines below.