Artist's statement

By Ernest J. Zarate (Book: At The Beach and Website: http://www.ezphotos.net)

California: A mythical land having a mixture of reality and fantasy, created by TV, movies and photographs; a place of mind and spirit, where everyone is tan, svelte and young; where the palm trees sway in the gentle breeze, the sand and ocean are picture perfect and life is always good. I spent a good deal of my early life on and around the beaches of California. Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, Avila Beach, Santa Barbara and Shell Beach, among others, were places my mother would take us for a cheap outing. We kids would spend hours playing in the surf, building sand castles and burying each other. Then there were the means; everything we ate had sand on it: the hot dogs, chips all were very crunchy. Being kids, we didn't think anything of it and just accepted it as part of the experience. Why mom would laugh, saying, "it's just a part of the peck of dirt you need to eat as a kid." Now, as I walk down the beaches of Southern California, looking at the palm trees, the skaters, the lifeguard towers, the surfers, I think: "This is what people all over the world picture when they think of California." Postcards, movies and TV shows create a reality for the world to consume: the endless beaches, the warm water, the skimpy bathing suits. These images are broadcast to the world, and the idealized vision becomes the reality. For the young kid who is sitting at home watching "Baywatch" on TV one cold wintry night, picturing sun-drenched beaches and big-busted women in skimpy bathing suits, this is the reality of California. Perhaps, one day, the kid thinks, I will go there and live the good life. The myth/dream/reality takes hold of many. My photographs and I dwell in this land of California, working at showing the myth as well as the reality.