Joy happens in an instant, often unexpectedly with no indication of it’s arrival. A moment happens and it’s over. On to the next moment.
Rarely does a moment of joy last for a long duration. It shouldn’t. It wouldn’t be special if it did. Besides, it’d be exhausting. Who wants to feel joyful all the time? We need to feel the opposite just as often so we can recognize joy when it does happen.
Sometimes I’m lucky enough to capture these moments with my camera. I was excited to hear that two of my photos were going to be in the exhibition, “Joy Unfiltered 2025-2026” by the Allora Gallery.
August. Summer. Coronado beach, San Diego at the beach at the historic Hotel Del Coronado. The voices of kids playing in the surf and laughing are heard in the distance. A pink parasol provides a slight refuge from the sun’s rays. A woman celebrates her birthday with her man. A moment of joy is captured and the feeling is carried throughout the day. Memories of Beach Time.
The second photo of mine in the Joy Unfiltered 2025-2026 exhibition by Allora Gallery is Any Clown Can Make A Movie. Another photo luckily captured in an instant before the the moment was gone.
It was the year 2000 and I was shooting a mockumentary film on the Santa Monica beach.
The film was about a b-movie director with delusions of grandeur. His cinematographer was literally a clown, shooting the movie in between his kids’ birthday parties and confirming the proclamation of the title.
While taking a break, I grabbed the attention of the actor playing the clown who was having a smoke and the cinematographer for the mockumentary and shot this candid behind the scenes photo on 35mm film.
This frame perfectly encapsulates the absurdness and promise of low budget filmmaking.
Any Clown Can Make a Movie won Best Comedy Photo in the Hollywood 2026 gallery exhibition at The Lab on Sante Fe in Denver. It also was a winner in the Los Angeles Photography Awards, 21st edition 2024, and at the ICE CineFest 2024 in the Behind The Scenes category in both.
Related: 1950s Hollywood in 2025
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