Why did I move to Santa Monica?
Hey there. This is Nat Bennett, and you're reading Photo Newsletter, my newsletter about photography. Mostly it's a place where I publish my own photos but I still harbor a vague but very real intent to write about photo books (and what I like about other photographers just in general).
It's also my favorite newsletter to work on right now. It's a weekly reason to share some photos. Sometimes that gets me to take photos. Other weeks, it gets me to dig through my archives and take a closer, more editorial look at pictures I took a few years ago. I always feel great after doing this. So, thanks for reading.
Right now I’m calling this project “Santa Monica 2020” but it needs a better name.
I don’t have a good explanation for why I moved to Los Angeles. The move to Oakland, the move to New York, simple: I moved for a job. The moves before that are easy, too: The Coast Guard, and then college. Moving back “home,” to Northern Virginia, was also straightforward: My college internship offered me a full time job, and where else was I going to go?
The move back from Los Angeles, to Oakland, was a little bit more complicated. A little bit more specific. We told our teams we were moving on that day in October the whole Bay Area turned orange and everyone was like, ”Why?” A lot of our friends are here, sure, but it was the middle of the pandemic and everything was on fire.
Los Angeles, though. That one’s complicated.
