Street Shrines

“Sweetheart, I'm here for you. You're not alone. You may be afraid or confused or not even totally aware of your circumstances, but trust me, I won't leave you. I won't leave you here without a hand to squeeze. You have family. I will be them for you. You have God in your life. I will represent Him for you. You are the most important person I will ever know at this moment, and I have nowhere more important than being here with you.”

This is one of many street shrines. I’m sure you have noticed them scattered around every community. The story behind this one is that it is located in Hasley Canyon, where I live. My son was playing in a high school baseball playoff game about 50 miles away, and I was in a rush to try to get there on time. The girl represented by this shrine and I met at an intersection in my community, and she smiled at me and waved me on through. She followed me closely down the street when I thought I heard an odd noise. Initially, I was inclined to just go to my game, but something in my gut told me to stop and turn around. Indeed, there had been an accident between two of my neighbors, the girl following me and another local woman. When I pulled up to the first car, I could see that the woman was alert and crying for help. Behind me was a pickup truck with two men headed on foot toward her. I decided to move onto the young girl’s car.

I was first on the scene, and I held her hand while the paramedics came, before she passed. She couldn't communicate back, but her car was totally smashed. The engine was in the passenger compartment, pinning her down completely. It was just an awful sight. I had time to talk to her while the emergency vehicles were on their way. She couldn't speak, and I wasn’t even sure she could hear me, but I assumed she was still able to hear me. In any case, I wasn’t going to leave her till I was kicked out.

The thing is, from that I started looking at street shrines differently. I wrote a story about the girl who died in that thing, in that accident in Hasley Canyon. It affected me. And then I started noticing all the street shrines in the city and shooting them. I've got more than 100 street shrines. When I look at the images, some of them are really neglected, and you wonder what their loved ones are thinking? And others are really ornate, full-blown shrines. There are so many that are just outrageous. So I have a series on that. It’s been 20 years, and her family still lovingly tends the shrine with holiday-season decorations.