Two Decades in America: A Photo From Every Year

Where It Started: A Camera and an Introduction to America

Back in 2006, my father-in-law, Rowland was the first person who made America feel a little less foreign to me. He worked in biotech, but his real obsession was photography – weather rolling in, unusual light, quiet corners of everyday life. He had a way of noticing things most people miss. When he gave me my first camera, it wasn’t meant to be some life-changing gesture, but that small moment ended up shaping far more of my life than either of us expected.

His influence was the spark, but the rest unfolded as I built a life here.

As 2026 approaches, I’ve been thinking about what twenty years in the U.S. has actually looked like – the moves, the jobs, the people, the chaos, the quieter stretches, and all the moments in between that I tried to make sense of through a lens. Photography became the thing that helped me settle in, pay attention, and document everything from the landscapes that felt nothing like home to the ones that eventually started to.

Influence, Loss, and Finding My Own Way of Seeing

Rowland’s style – his focus on atmosphere, light, and the overlooked – stuck with me, but over the years I found my own way of seeing. Looking back through two decades of photos, I can trace where his influence shows up, and where my own voice started to take over.

We lost him far too early in 2016, but the impact he had was already baked in by then. The camera he handed me didn’t just become a hobby; it became the thread running through my entire time in America.

Twenty years, twenty photos, and the influence that helped set me in motion – and the life and family I’ve built since.

Click on the photos below to see them larger.