The Yearbook Everyone Gets to Be In

Back when Enrique Espinoza was a student at Southwest High and San Ysidro High, his mom couldn’t afford to buy him the school yearbook. So he made his own. Every spring, he brought a new marbled composition book to pass around, collecting signatures, photos, and messages from friends. By senior year, he was finally able to get his hands on the “real” yearbook, but at that point, he preferred the personal, collaborative project he’d started: a record of how people could come together to create something from nothing.

Espinoza—“Oz” to friends—got serious about photography a couple years later at Southwestern College, shooting for esport leagues and connecting with other artists all the while. Then in 2024, his childhood friend Charlie Knowles, cofounder of Bica Coffee Shop in Normal Heights, got in touch: He was looking to host meetups for creatives at the café, and he remembered how much people enjoyed contributing to Oz’s DIY yearbooks back in high school. Why not make more?

So Yearbook Creative Club launched on November 23, 2024, at Bica, with the goal to connect local artists, and ultimately make a book showcasing one another’s work. Since that first meeting, the club has become a social hub for creatives, also running art shows, galleries, a holiday toy drive, and a booth at the inaugural San Diego Bazaar winter marketplace. Yearbook also often collaborates with Camera Exposure, Southern California’s largest used camera store and photo studio, which has been a nexus for San Diego photographers in Normal Heights for nearly 40 years.

And though Oz provided the spark, he emphasizes that the club is, at its heart, a group endeavor: six photographers form the “Yearbook Committee”—including entrepreneur baker Samra Lovelady and Brian Eastman, chief experience designer of San Diego hospitality collective CH Projects—but everyone with an artistic eye is welcome. In Camera Exposure’s blog, Developing Stories, writer Austin Siragusa characterized Yearbook as “a community-first collective that deters gatekeeping and neutralizes imposter syndrome in favor of an open-door policy to foster trust and skill-sharing, regardless of follower count and portfolio length.”

The club published Yearbook Vol. 1—a limited-edition, entirely self-funded, 170-page glossy hardcover with the same spirit as Oz’s high school books—last April, celebrating with a launch party and gallery at the headquarters of Tribal Streetwear in San Diego’s East Village. About half of the 30 artists represented in the book are local; the rest are extended contacts from New York, Miami, and San Francisco. “Yearbook is San Diego-based,” Oz says. “San Diego is the home, but art is everywhere, and I want to be sure that San Diego is in that conversation of bringing artists together.”

Anyone interested in improving their camera skills is invited: Rowley says they always have a good mix of beginners and more experienced photographers, which leads to helpful conversations about how to get one’s aperture settings just right, or tips on how to compose the best shot.

The museum began hosting a series of bimonthly photo walks around La Jolla in partnership with Yearbook. Anyone interested in improving their camera skills is invited: Rowley says they always have a good mix of beginners and more experienced photographers, which leads to helpful conversations about how to get one’s aperture settings just right, or tips on how to compose the best shot. The walks are scheduled to end at the museum in time to segue into another event: March’s walk led into a live jazz band performance; May’s led into the museum’s entry-fee-free Second Sunday.

Yearbook Vol. 2 came out in late May 2026 with a release party of over 300 attendees and a partnership with 100 Thieves. This volume features a greater variety of media, including digital illustration, graffiti, and tattoo art. The club is also planning to publish an additional book in partnership with MCASD, composed exclusively of work taken during this year’s photo walks—anyone who participates is welcome to submit. Rowley says he hopes to celebrate that book’s launch with a community gallery, as part of an ongoing effort to show that art museums are not just reserved for the great, dead Old Masters. There’s space for you and me, too.

Yearbook meets several times a year at Bica, and Oz says there are always new faces and drop-ins from other local photography groups, such as Girls on Film and Beers and Cameras. Several lapsed amateurs have told him that simply showing up and feeling welcome has inspired them to pick up their camera again.

As more people seek a digital detox by turning back to screen- or AI-free art forms—Talker Research reported this January that 50 percent of adults are turning to a more analog life via paper books, vinyl records, and actual cameras (not the one in your phone)—Oz says that most people he knows still shoot on film, which has a relatively low barrier to entry. “A film camera is a lot friendlier on your wallet,” he says. “For, like, $150 you can get something comparable to a $900 digital camera.”

And though he admits he’s usually “a digital guy,” Oz notes that working with film is an antidote to digital fatigue and endless scrolling. “A lot of people like that process,” he says. “There’s a philosophy that comes with shooting on film that makes you want to slow down and appreciate the shot.”

The next Yearbook Creative Club photo walk is July 12 at 1 p.m. at MCASD in La Jolla, led by Enrique Espinoza and Brian Eastman.

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