For the past twenty-five years, Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon has lived in his East Austin home working as a photojournalist and portrait photographer.

“Vecino” looks to explore the unique and distinctive sense of spirit that defines the Holly Street neighborhood, the place where I have lived for the past twenty-five years. For me, this spirit has always been fostered by my neighbors. The stories of these kindred spirits, old-timers, families and folks have shaped my sense of home, and together, they are my “Genius Loci”, the keepers of the spirit of the neighborhood. Change is nothing new to the Holly Street neighborhood. Over the past twenty-five years, I’ve watched neighbors come and go, businesses open and businesses close, homes get demolished and new ones built in their place. What feels different now is the scope and speed of this change. “Vecino” is both a way for me to honor personally important space keepers as well as explore what happens to the spirit of a neighborhood inside such rapid change. Through portraits and interviews both past and present, “Vecino” is a living collective narrative of the place I call home.