Christine Chang Photography

Yesterday I got to tag along with Sean Hiller, a photographer from the Torrance Daily Breeze. It was a bit strange in the sense that I drove by my grandma’s house (she passed away over 15 years ago), the hospital where I was born, the church that I went to (it’s now an apartment complex), and these childhood markers made me feel something. All I can say for now is that it’s weird, I haven’t been down Western Avenue. since I was a kid sitting in my parent’s car.

Torrance, in my opinion, is a bit of Middle America imported into Southern California. White picket fences, children playing in the yard, pumpkin patches and lots of family values. My family’s in Texas now, but I remember that my parents loved Torrance, and apparently alot of people I know still love Torrance for its good schools and its community. When we were driving around I saw alot of kids and pets, and that instantly made me feel at ease and it also reminded me of Norman Rockwell’s paintings.  It’s something that I don’t see often in the city. In the city where I live I see more things like a kid walking home from school and then standing in front of a closed strip club waiting to cross the street.

The thing I’ve noticed about Sean the most was his passion for photography. As I get older I find that it’s harder to meet passionate people. Sometimes I feel like everyone gets more disillusioned. But Sean still loves the art of photography, and he loves his job, and just hearing him go on about photography makes me feel like the long road is worth it, and after talking to him yesterday I think about whether I’m really ready to take that long road, but with passion the road isn’t as long as you think and with passion your goal’s always in sight.

He also speaks of one instance when he volunteered to wake up in the middle of the night to feed his infant daughter because he wanted to listen to the police scanner to see if there was any breaking news. It takes a special breed to be married to a photographer.

Here’s the wild art we caught.

Here’s Sean recording the mom and the kids’ names so he can properly caption the pic if published in the Daily Breeze.