[Luisa] Do you want to look at the tree?
When I first got here, the first thing that struck me about Sol was…
In the first class she gave me she said “Why are you always dreaming of going back and don’t live in the present? The present is this country that offers you beautiful things.”
That struck me. And I said to myself “This isn’t an ordinary class. This is a class that started to reeducate me.”
[Sol] I want to see the photos you took. Girls, someone, Neshi, can you get the lights?
Ah, Luisa, what is this, Luisa?
[Luisa] That’s my tree. [Sol] Corona?
[Sol] Ah, the tree you’re taking….
(people chattering)
[Luisa] Yes, I have a tree I say hello to everyday.
[Sol]There it is growing.
[Luisa] And now look, it’s blossoming.
[Sol] Look how pretty this picture is. Don’t you think so?
[Sol] I believe it took me three years to arrive.

Immigrants live in an imaginary space. Thinking they’ll go back, or maybe wanting to go back, but knowing they’ll never return.
So they never truly arrive.
The city gives you mixed feelings… Sometimes it seems unreachable, like in the movies.
So it takes a while to get over that and say “I’m here, I too can go to this place, do this, use this space, walk around here…”
And that’s also what I transmit in my workshops, that sense of belonging, of “I’m here.”
[Luisa] When I arrived in this country, the thing I could do was hairstyling.
Sometimes the work you do takes over your life.
But I then started to sort of wake up.
And she started teaching us, but it wasn’t just photography, it was culture.
Oh, and I just loved that.
For me, now, this is a city of dreams.
Now, when I ride the train I even start looking at the map… I mean, I didn’t know how to read the map before.
I would always go straight home from work and back.
After 12, 13, 14 hours working with a lot of stress and more things to do at home…
And now I’ve stopped working!
I quit my job. And I’m not starving.
Now my dream isn’t to pursue money, but life.
Now I just want live.

Project Luz is a Queen-based photography workshop designed to help Latino immigrants connect to the city and their new community through the lens of a camera. “When I moved to New York, photography made me, slowly but surely, feel at home,” says Argentinean artist Sol Aramendi, who leads the workshop. “And just like photography helped me arrive, I wanted to do the same thing for other immigrants.”

One photo at a time, Project Luz’s students learn the basics of photography but also learn how to tell their stories and everyday experiences through visual storytelling.

Luisa Simbaña left her home country of Ecuador more than a decade ago, but it wasn’t until recently that she started to feel truly at home in New York City. Thanks to Project Luz, Luisa started to explore New York through the lens of a camera and make the city her own. This is her story, through the lens of Project Luz.