The Terra Galleria Blog – QT Luong

https://www.terragalleria.com/blog/photograph-from-the-coyote-creek-trail-series-honored-at-cpa/

Using the singular URL photography.org, the Center for Photographic Art (CPA) is the second oldest members’ photography gallery space in the country, tracing its roots back to and occupying the original Carmel gallery space of the Friends of Photography, which was launched by Ansel Adams and others in 1967.

Each year, CPA organizes a members’ juried exhibition. Unlike photo competitions judged by photographers with limited credentials, CPA’s calls for entry are juried by gallerists and curators. For the 2025 edition, the juror was Allie Haeusslein, the director of Pier 24 Photography – the largest exhibition space in North America dedicated solely to photography. I was familiar with her name, since she wrote the text for Chris McCaw’s book featured on my contemporary BW landscape photography book list.

I have entered only a handful of photography contests in my life, and the last time I did was more than a decade ago. This time, I was motivated to do so because of the new directions taken by my work. Ann Jastrab, the CPA’s executive director had been generous of her time with me, so the entry fee was a way to support the organization. Since the call is open only to CPA members, I didn’t expect it to be that competitive, but it turned out that more than 2,400 entries were received, for 45 gallery exhibition slots. I was therefore honored that my image titled Home Comforts, from the series Coyote Creek Trail was not only selected, but also won an honorable mention. My national parks nature photographs have been the subject of many solo exhibits on both U.S. coasts and abroad. However, this represents my first win in a contest of significance, and my first exhibit in a fine art photography context. It is never too late to try!

In addition to the 45 photographs exhibited in the gallery, you can also see 45 more photographs selected for online exhibit here. It is a diverse set both in terms of images and in term of process, and for someone used to see mostly travel and nature photography, quite an eye-opener. Several of the works, like the one below, are mixed-media pieces that are not adequately reproduced in 2D. In fact, most of the prints need to be seen in person to fully appreciate.

Artists in attendance, photo courtesy of Ann Jastrab

Home Comforts was included in my initial presentation of the Coyote Creek Trail project, but I am going to show a more images to provide some context and connections. The image whimsically encapsulates the project by gathering three elements with a luxuriant natural backdrop.

The Mercury News reports that the city is considering reforms to address the thousands of abandoned shopping carts retrieved each year from streets, parks, and waterways—objects officially classified as urban blight. Yet along the Coyote Creek Trail, shopping carts are a basic element of survival, not debris. They function as mobile infrastructure: makeshift wagons that carry everything from firewood, water, and recyclables—redeemable for a modest city payout—to personal belongings and even furniture. In a landscape without storage, where permanence is impossible and displacement frequent, the cart becomes both tool and lifeline, a vehicle for mobility and resilience. Seen this way, these wheeled skeletons of consumer culture speak volumes about the parallel economies and systems of adaptation that flourish at the city’s margins. They are symbols of how people claim space, transport necessity, and build lives in motion.

Many encampments along the trail are furnished with scavenged objects, but none are more poignant than the couch. Each discarded sofa, dragged through brush and bramble, is an attempt to carve out a space of dignity amid the precariousness of life outdoors. In these makeshift living rooms, the boundaries between home and wilderness collapse: plush fabric is bleached by the sun, cushions sag under the weight of rain, and armrests become perches for cats. They are reminders that the desire for comfort and belonging persists even in the most inhospitable conditions. In a region defined by the contrast between extraordinary wealth and visible deprivation, the sight of a couch in a thicket beside a creek makes visible the human urge to create home.

Pets are a quiet but persistent presence along the trail. Many unhoused residents keep dogs for protection and companionship, while others speak of the painful choice not to, knowing they can’t afford to feed another mouth. Most shelters do not allow animals, forcing many into a wrenching decision between safety and staying with a beloved companion. Cats are ubiquitous but eerily skittish—I’ve photographed wild pigs and foxes at closer range. The one in Home Comforts is the closest I’ve ever come. I later learned from a Vietnamese woman who feeds and traps them for neutering that many were abandoned along the Coyote Creek Trail by San Jose residents. Like their human neighbors, they live in the margins, surviving on what others have left behind.