Visions of Eden presents a visual narrative of my family’s journey as first-generation Filipino immigrants in America, explored through the mythological frameworks of Christian doctrine and the American Dream.

Drawing from my deeply religious upbringing and early experiences with assimilation, the project interrogates the truth behind these inherited mythologies and the flawed notion of paradise— a home from which we’ve been exiled and endlessly seek to rediscover. For many abroad, America is imagined as a modern-day Eden—a land of milk and honey, wealth, and abundance. But what is our forbidden tree? And what is gained or sacrificed in the pursuit of heaven?

Conceived as a book-based experience, the work combines original photography with appropriated imagery from children’s Bible storybooks and personal family archives—snapshots, letters, and video stills—offering a layered window into the complexities of faith, both spiritual and ideological.

An allegorical meditation on familial identity, death, legacy, and false promise, this hybrid portrait reflects on 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