Welcome to Los Angeles
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Monterey Park
A 75-mile journey across Los Angeles begins in a multi-ethnic suburb where Avenida Cesar Chavez launches westward.
East Los Angeles
A 19 year old confronted me after he saw me take a photo in his neighborhood. The conversation that ensued changed my perspective on how and why I am a photographer.
Boyle Heights
Some Latina Lesbians from Santa Ana educate me on how to read graffiti in order to keep myself safe on my solo walk through LA. In Boyle Heights I discover there’s less to fear and more to explore.
The Los Angeles River
What happens when nature meets a concrete jungle? Is this place trying to tell us something about how not to integrate nature into our urban spaces?
Read about the one photo I didn’t take and how doing so might have cost me my life.
Downtown LA
This used to be a place people passed through and avoided. It’s now one of the fastest growing neighborhoods in LA. While my route skirts the outside of Downtown (which really deserves much more attention from my lenses), my shoes took me through the place that gave birth to Los Angeles in 1776.
Explore more of my thoughts on LA’s position as the fifth largest Spanish-speaking metro area in the world.
Chinatown
Once in a while you need to change directions and explore a place that isn’t exactly on your planned route but has every reason to be the focus of your attention. Such was my experience in Chinatown that begins where Sunset Boulevard and Avenida Cesar Chavez meet.
Angelino Heights
Murals painted by famous artists, shops selling indigenous medicines, a Buddhist monastery and shrine to America’s favorite pastime all rubbing elbows with taco trucks and dive motels.
What more could a street photographer ask for?
Echo Park
There are few places in Los Angeles where you can see the battleground of gentrification more than in and around Echo Park. How this community navigates itself through issues such as homelessness, historic preservation and championing diversity in all its forms could be a model for other neighborhoods facing similar challenges.
Stay tuned for a return to Echo Park 15 years later, to see what changes have taken place.
Silver Lake
Gay bars, coffee bars, juice bars, vintage clothes, ramen shops, pilates studios, vinyl records, dollar stores and dollar car washes all conspire with multi-ethnic and income diverse residents to create one of the most interesting and avant-garde neighborhoods in all of LA… and one of the most fun places for street photography too.
Little Armenia /
Thai Town
While LA is well known for its Latin(x) roots, it is also home to numerous communities from other parts of the world. As we continue along Sunset, we will see the confluence of two of those cultures: Armenia and Thailand.
Hollywood by Day
Not exactly on my direct route but just a few blocks north of it lies the famous Walk of Fame as well as the theaters, shopping centers and tourist traps that can be found there. It’s quite frankly one of the best places to people watch in LA - if you don’t mind Darth Vader and Batman wanting you to pose in their pictures for a price.
Hollywood by Night
Hollywood at night tells a different story and I journey westward along Sunset, past some of its trendy restaurants and a famous record store which all make fun reasons to use 3200 speed film.
Sunset Strip by Day
Walk along the Sunset Strip in the morning on a weekend as I did and you get the feeling that you somehow missed the party. Either that or you really should be at the beach right now and come back after dark for drinks.
Sunset Strip by Night
So I did… come back after dark for drinks. As I wandered alongside the nightclubs and bars and late night eateries, I had a conversation with someone that you can only have in LA…
Beverly Hills
All of a sudden there are trees. All kinds of trees. You feel like you are in an urban oasis. And you are. Just one that you cannot afford… And one that probably has more leaves per square mile than the rest of California combined. (You might have to fact check that)
Holmby Hills / Bel Air
And as if you thought people could not get richer… there’s Holmby Hills and Bel Air which is where people upgrade when Beverly Hills feels too much like the back of the plane in those seats that don’t recline. I can so relate to how Beverly Hills feels like that.
It was also along this stretch of Sunset where I almost lost my life.
Brentwood
Ah Brentwood… the original suburb… that’s no longer a suburb… that’s sporting all the reasons people move to LA and where you never want to leave once you’ve arrived. (No seriously, the 405 is right there and trust me, who wants to do that twice in one afternoon?)
Pacific Palisades
Believe me, the word Palisades is perfect. It means “a fence of wooden stakes or iron railings in the ground, forming an enclosure or defense.” Thus ‘Pacific Palisades’ really means: “We have the best view on the planet and we know it!”
Will Rogers State Beach
And then we arrive at our almost final destination. The end of the road. Sunset Blvd reaches Pacific Coast Hwy at one of Southern California’s famous surfing spots and home to LA’s unofficial Gay Beach. (who knew?)
While walking along its sands I spotted something you rarely see on Southern California shores… (and no I’m not speaking of Speedos)
Santa Monica
OK, I admit it, Santa Monica is not on Sunset Blvd or Av. Cesar Chavez but… you make it to the coast and see a pier with a roller coaster on it and you just have to go and see for yourself what all the fun is about.
It was here that I decided to try on some color film for the first time on this project. After having spent so many hours walking alone, it is a fitting tribute to this great city to do some people watching where locals and tourists come together to enjoy the good life.