Virginia Martinez is a rare species of Arizona native. Growing up in the desert she has seen it go from desolate to bombarded with other species of Chicagoans, Californians, and the such. After a seven year journey with the U.S. Navy where she traveled to the east coast of the U.S., the seas of the Mediterranean, and to Korea, the “Land of the Morning Calm,” she came back to Arizona where she just completed her undergraduate degree in photography at Arizona State University. Through her appreciation for the desert and her surroundings she has an urge to document how inhabitants of the desert, both residential and commercial neighbors, design and use their space. Arizona, and in particular Phoenix, poses unique problems with the lack of water and abundance of sun shining down upon us, which in turn creates some rather intriguing land usage.