“Stripped: San Fernando Valley” captures the omnipresent, signature strip mall intersections of the Los Angeles valley and reimagines them in a way never seen before.

No place does the corner strip mall like the 260 square mile San Fernando Valley. They’re omnipresent and have become as much a part of the landscape as palm-tree-lined streets and the namesake mountains that surround it. Numerous intersections are bounded by these oddball menageries of eateries, grocers, and dry cleaners; liquor stores, hairdressers, and perhaps the occasional psychic reader.

As a native valley girl, they trigger nostalgic memories for me to this day.

The first “drive-in market” was introduced to Los Angeles in the 1920s. In the 70s, these markets evolved into the “mini” or “strip” malls we know today.

As they reached their apex in the mid-80s (an estimated 3,000 had been built in Southern California), I had my driver’s license and my first car. Throughout my teenage years, in cars filled with friends, we frequented numerous strip malls for a quick Slurpee stop or video rental.

Today, we Angelenos pass by these blurs of stucco, glass, signage and parked cars every day without much notice. As a photographer, their colorful variety (contrasted with bland façades) seemed to tell the story of “The Valley” as well as anything. I set out to capture them.

I quickly realized that a single exposure did not provide the feeling I desired to express—of experiencing these corners through the window of a moving car. I began experimenting with multiple layers.

Voilà! By merging and arranging the four corners of an intersection, the resulting kaleidoscope effect allows us to re-envision something otherwise seen as unremarkable. And, after all, isn’t this the great virtue of photography?