In the shadow of Silicon Valley: Laura Morton on shooting the two faces of the tech dream

Palo Alto and East Palo Alto are two US cities with almost identical names, situated next to each other in California's Bay Area. But they are separated by a stark wealth gap. According to government statistics, per capita income is $82,576 in Palo Alto but $22,068 in East Palo Alto. 2018 Canon Female Photojournalist Award winner Laura Morton's project, University Avenue, takes its name from a street that runs through both cities.

At the outset, Laura thought inequality would be the focus of this project, but she noticed more similarities than she expected between the area that Mark Zuckerberg calls home and its less prosperous neighbour. Instead, University Avenue became about how we live our lives in the broadest sense – how we work, how we play, how we pray, how we build community.

"Both cities are being squeezed, in different ways, by the tech giants around them," she says. "I realised it would be more interesting to photograph similar slices of daily life that transcend economic and cultural differences, to focus on how people are the same."

2018 Canon Female Photojournalist Award winner

San Francisco based documentary photographer Laura had immersed herself in Palo Alto's tech scene when shooting the Magnum Foundation funded Wild West Tech, which chronicled the young people flocking to Silicon Valley to live and breathe the tech dream – a modern-day gold rush.

Laura started work on the project last winter. Normally she'd begin by reading around the topic, but there wasn't a huge amount of literature out there. "I spent a lot of time walking around, exploring both cities and talking to people. Going to community events as well as places where people who are invested in the community would gather, such as city council meetings and church, was really helpful. If possible, I like to work by going into a place with as much background research as I can, but then letting the people I meet guide me to the story.

"The benefit of working with the backing of a grant is that you can take your time, research, and change direction if you feel it is necessary. I much prefer to work this way because it allows for deeper and more subtle stories to develop," Laura says.

Prompted by a weekend spent shooting Palo Alto's May Fete Parade on Saturday and East Palo Alto's Cinco de Mayo Parade, Laura made the decision early on to exhibit the pictures at Visa 2019 as pairs. This influenced how she selected locations, people and moments to capture, editing as she went along.

"I was looking for a mirror match to every photograph," she says. "When I got a photo I liked from one city, I'd print it out and put it on my wall at home so it was in my head to search for in the other city. For example, I had a photograph from church in East Palo Alto that I liked, and when I went to the Palo Alto church I had that photo in my mind. I saw a group standing in the same way, holding their hands in a semi-circle in prayer, even with the similar touches of red in their clothing, so I ran over and took the photo."

The challenge was finding visually interesting situations to photograph. "These are not the most dramatic-looking places, and this is essentially a story about daily life in suburban towns. I tend to pick projects that are not visually obvious, overcoming this by waiting for moments and photographs to come together." This entailed a fair amount of street photography, which was an interesting experience for someone who says she is, by nature, shy. "I'm much more comfortable when I've talked my way into an intimate situation than out on the street. It was necessary for this project, though, and I found myself getting more comfortable with it."

Laura is now working on the next stage of Wild West Tech, looking at cryptocurrency and robotics start-ups, but University Avenue is far from over. "There are quite a few photos I love that I haven't found mirrors for yet, even though I know they're out there," she says. "I like to work on long-term projects in chapters and immerse myself for a few months, complete one chapter and then take a breather. When I come back, I usually see things with fresh eyes."