I founded FYPC with a few goals in mind—I want to emphasize here, however, the power of analogue photography.

I began my photo career while in the foster care system—photography helped me get away from all of the policing, bullying, and anger that plagued my life. In foster care, every decision is made for you—with no regard for your interests.

An act of self-determination:

Every piece of clothing that was bought for me, I sold. I saved up enough cash to purchase my first film camera. I hid my camera at the bottom of my backpack (from the snitching used to reward policing mentality of the child welfare system) and asked friends for rides to buy rolls of film from the pharmacy. It took a whole group of hands to build my first rolls of film: the sticky middle school fingers taking money out their mom’s purse to buy some knock off jordans from me, the computer wiz of a friend who took my cash and made it digital for me, the hands that handled my rolls of film, the mailman that brought me back my negatives, the hands of friends that stood in front of my lens—all of it done, with some faith in me.

Photography has delivered me to some of the most amazing moments in my life, it has brought me my closest friends, and FYPC is how I give back to this process.

If the Foster Youth Photo Crew can bring our community members an ounce of what I have felt from photography, I will die happy.

FYPC visits William Camargo’s Studio Santa Ana, 2023