Visions of Eden presents a visual account of my family’s journey as first-generation Filipino immigrants in America examined through the mythological lens of Christian doctrine and The American Dream.

Responding to my heavy religious upbringing and childhood experiences in assimilating, I question the veracity of these ingrained mythologies and the faulty notion of paradise. To people abroad, America is painted as a proverbial Eden: the land of milk and honey, wealth and excess. What is our forbidden tree? What is gained and lost in the search for prosperity? Conceived as an experience in book form, the project weaves together original photography with appropriated imagery taken from children’s Bible-story books and ephemera from my own family’s archives—snapshots, letters, and video stills—forming a window into the complex experience of faith, both spiritual and ideological.

A meditation on familial identity, religion, death, legacy, and false promise—this hybrid ‘portrait’ contemplates past and present, and both the uncertainty and hope of our desired futures.

Visions of Eden

© Ryan Frigillana

Self-published: June 2020

Hardcover, 210x262x19 mm, 454 grams

120 pages, 83 images

11 tipped-in vellum prints

1 loose insert

First edition of 20