2nd place
silver star award
Joshua Sarinana
united states 
title
Valley of the Hearts Delight
Over 16 years ago I left San José to move to pursue higher education. When I come back to visit San José I drive around surrounding Silicon Valley to see how much has changed and look to see if familiar landmarks are still around. Technology companies drive the every increasing rate of change taking place in San José and beyond. Familiar markers of home are torn down for new high-end retail, luxury apartments or a high-rise. Every time I come back to San José it becomes harder and harder to take the proverbial trip down memory lane. Memories of my hometown are plucked away and replaced with something new and seemingly unreal, leaving me with a sense of amnesia.
Given San José’s contributions to inventing technologies that change culture, politics, and governments it is thought of as a place that invents the future. However, this area has very few markers of its young history. This series aims to capture this transitional period through architecture when San José underwent rapid urbanization.
To accentuate feelings of the past I use the frame of the film stocks. Advancements in digital photography are a direct repercussion of the technologies built in Silicon Valley. The image as a product was once captured in crystals and celluloid, now it primarily exists as representation of software code. The physicality of the film serves as a reminder of San José’s roots.
Sariñana has had a solo exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography, shown at the Houston Center for Photography, Photoville, and the Center for Fine Art Photography.
His work has been recognized by the Sony World Photography Awards, Communication Arts, PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris, and the Head On Photo Awards. His work has been published in Silvershotz Magazine, Monovisions Magazine, Better Photography Magazine, and ScieArt Magazine. He is also the recipient of a Council for Arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Grant. In addition, Sariñana's work has been featured on The Guardian, Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, and Time. One of his images was also licensed for an iPhone 6 commercial ad.
Sariñana has published several articles on the intersection of photography, neuroscience including in the photography periodicals Don’t Take Pictures and The Smart View. He has also been interviewed by several influential photography blogs as well as Vice Magazine. Sariñana currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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entry description
San José, California is the Capital of Silicon valley but it was once referred to as the Valley of the Hearts Delight. The later moniker speaks to the history of San José, which is that of an incredibly rich farming region. During the 1950s and ‘60s San José’s population grew nearly ten times in size, transforming farmland into high-tech firms.Over 16 years ago I left San José to move to pursue higher education. When I come back to visit San José I drive around surrounding Silicon Valley to see how much has changed and look to see if familiar landmarks are still around. Technology companies drive the every increasing rate of change taking place in San José and beyond. Familiar markers of home are torn down for new high-end retail, luxury apartments or a high-rise. Every time I come back to San José it becomes harder and harder to take the proverbial trip down memory lane. Memories of my hometown are plucked away and replaced with something new and seemingly unreal, leaving me with a sense of amnesia.
Given San José’s contributions to inventing technologies that change culture, politics, and governments it is thought of as a place that invents the future. However, this area has very few markers of its young history. This series aims to capture this transitional period through architecture when San José underwent rapid urbanization.
To accentuate feelings of the past I use the frame of the film stocks. Advancements in digital photography are a direct repercussion of the technologies built in Silicon Valley. The image as a product was once captured in crystals and celluloid, now it primarily exists as representation of software code. The physicality of the film serves as a reminder of San José’s roots.
about the photographer
Dr. Joshua Sariñana was born in San José, California. He obtained his neuroscience degrees at the University of California, Los Angeles and in a Nobel Prize winning lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). After MIT, Sariñana became a research fellow at Harvard Medical School where he studied the computational processing of spatial navigation. Sariñana is currently a fine arts photographer and writer.Sariñana has had a solo exhibition at the Griffin Museum of Photography, shown at the Houston Center for Photography, Photoville, and the Center for Fine Art Photography.
His work has been recognized by the Sony World Photography Awards, Communication Arts, PX3 Prix de la Photographie Paris, and the Head On Photo Awards. His work has been published in Silvershotz Magazine, Monovisions Magazine, Better Photography Magazine, and ScieArt Magazine. He is also the recipient of a Council for Arts at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Grant. In addition, Sariñana's work has been featured on The Guardian, Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, and Time. One of his images was also licensed for an iPhone 6 commercial ad.
Sariñana has published several articles on the intersection of photography, neuroscience including in the photography periodicals Don’t Take Pictures and The Smart View. He has also been interviewed by several influential photography blogs as well as Vice Magazine. Sariñana currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
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