One creative idea became a mission, became an obsession

Sunset Blvd. & Av. Cesar Chavez -
2 sides of the Same Street

The original idea for this project came from a poll that I had taken of roughly 300 visitors to my photography studio in Santa Ana, California, in the fall of 2007. When I asked them to decide the general subject of my first-ever crowd-sourced assignment, surprisingly “Cool Local Places” in black and white was the top choice.

Having recently taken several trips to Europe where I had rediscovered street photography, I decided to focus my project in this capacity. The question was where?

Perhaps the most famous street in all of Los Angeles, Sunset Boulevard, was one very likely contender because it has immediate name recognition and even a global reputation. Of course I was familiar with many parts of this street and knew it ended at the ocean but one thing I didn’t know was where it started. I traced the path of Sunset Blvd. from the affluent neighborhoods of Pacific Palisades, Brentwood and Bel Air, past UCLA, then through Beverly Hills, on to the famous nightlife district known as the Sunset Strip in West Hollywood, then across Hollywood and into Thai Town, Little Armenia, Los Feliz and Silverlake before it wound its way through Echo Park, past Dodger Stadium and into Chinatown in Downtown.

Something jumped out at me though when I did this. I noticed the name changed in Chinatown. At Figueroa, Sunset Blvd. becomes Avenida Cesar Chavez which passes by Olvera Street (where Los Angeles was founded) and Union Station, also in Downtown, and then crosses the LA River into Boyle Heights (historic home to LA’s first large Jewish community) and then into East Los Angeles (birthplace of the modern Chicano identity and movement) before ending near Atlantic in Monterey Park.

When I saw the cultural contrast between what Sunset Blvd. connects and what Cesar Chavez connects and how the two are the same, long ribbon of pavement, I realized I couldn’t simply do a project on Sunset Blvd. alone. I felt that if I stayed on Sunset I would be playing it safe and not telling a broader, more true story of who LA is - after all Los Angeles is the epicenter of the 5th largest Spanish-speaking metropolitan region in the world.

If I skipped the Cesar Chavez half of the journey, I was not only avoiding important neighborhoods in Mexican-American culture, I was avoiding the true roots of the city of Los Angeles.

This region I call home was established not as the 2nd largest city in the US but as a small religious and trading outpost of New Spain and later Mexico. Indeed, Los Angeles would not become part of the US until 1848 - 72 years after the city’s founding in 1776 - the same year the United States began its fight for independence.

At first though I was hesitant. I’m a White guy with bright orange hair and I would be walking with a camera through neighborhoods where I look different and stick out. That gave me pause. Would I be safe? Would I be welcome? Then it hit me… if I am willing to wander through neighborhoods on the other side of the world, why was I so hesitant to explore neighborhoods in my own backyard?

So it began. It took 12 trips over the course of six months to complete this incredible walk across Los Angeles. I had no idea what I was going to experience and how this project would inspire so many more after that.

This project has shaped my identity as an artist more than any other.

WTF was I thinking? I don’t know but I’m glad that I did this.

How did I do it?

I walked both sides of the street for a total of 64 miles. I returned to several sections at night, re-walking what I did in the day bringing the total walked to about 75 miles.

I shot with Ilford black and white 35mm film. I shot 45 rolls that were a mix of PanF 50, Delta 100, HP5 400 and Delta 3200.

I had only one camera: a Canon AE-1. I used several lenses including a 28mm, 50mm and a 70-210mm.

As mentioned in the narrative on the page for Monterey Park, I did not walk these sections in sequence. I jumped around based on what I knew and was comfortable with first and then going out into the unknown. Most of this walk included areas I had never been before. In order to prepare, I used Google Earth to help me visualize the journey and understand what I could expect for major landmarks to help me gauge distance.

While walking I would park my car in a central spot and then walk up one side of the street; circle back on the other side and pass my car and then circle back on the original side, making a big loop. In areas where I felt less safe, I would make small circles and in areas where I felt most comfortable I would make very long circles.

My longest day was 12 miles in one day.

What came next?

It was when I was winding down this walk while in Brentwood that I came up with the idea to do it again. My 2nd walk was originally going to be across Orange County where I grew up but I decided in late 2008, to take a trip to Guadalajara, Mexico and repeat this project there. After that was a project in New York and then a chance to do some photography in Paris and Baltimore. It was not until 2014 that I really started to turn my attention to photographing the Americas in depth.