Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Down Town, LA _Project 09 #9

Every time I have driven by the LA river I have all ways wanted to go down in there and shoot it. I heard it can be kind of sketchy in there and bringing a nice camera with you doesn’t help the situation out any. I asked my friends Jordan and Andre to go with me on an adventure and clime down in to the LA River. From the moment we started walking towards it you could feel the energy changing. As we started climbing in this felling came over me and I started thinking this might not be a good idea. I could not stop moving forward the beauty of it drew closer and closer. I we were on a mission.

We had walked under some of the bridges when we came a cross this one. Then we noticed that you could climb up in there. We looked at it for 30 min contemplating if we should go up in there. We could tell that people were living up in there but we could not tell if any one was up in there. The only way to see what was up there was to clime up and go in .The thing about that was once you were in there you could not just run out you would be trapped. For all we knew there could be a guy up there with a pip around a corner waiting for us. Finally Jordan said im going up! Andre and I kenw if he went up we had to go so that settled that.

Here is a view looking back from the top the sun was setting and the only way out was a 20-foot drop on the other side.

Once we were in here it was amazing.

This is the some ones home. You would have to be pretty hard to clime up that wall and sleep here night after night.

This is another look at some ones home. I liked the playboy cover lying there. I bet the girls on the cover did think it would end up under a bridge all dirty being displayed in this way? That is the way I feel about porn there is nothing glamorous about it in my eyes.

The bible make this photo it says so many different things to me.

By the time we crawled out of the bridge it was dark I still had not gotten my shoot of the LA River. We started heading down in the darkness. I look back and there were two people coming right behind us. I could only see two silhouettes coming towards us. One of them started yelling were are you going in a mocking tone. I yell back in my smart ass tone. What? I was really tippen out I thought we were going to get rolled but I could not let them know I was scared. We keep walking forward and they sat down on the edge of the river as we walked of into the darkness. I came up to this spot and I had found where I was going to shoot the amazing place.

8 comments:

M A I A said...

amazing. you're an inspiration.

Ella Bones said...

AMAZING! COULD I PLEASE GO SHOOT WITH YOU FOR 1 DAY?!

Zak.Shelhamer said...

Sickj good work, it looks areal gross down there! hope you didn't pick up anything nasty.

Kandee Johnson said...

...wow ian...you finally got to go down there...this is so fascinating...i can't tell you how amazing the night shot of the bridge is!!!..and these pictures....you are talented beyond words...WHAT!?! the pictures of the "homes"...i couldn't stop looking at them....the talent you have is absolutely unreal! amazing, amazing job!

haley ➵ ann said...

wow ian.. these are amazing.

Browneyed2 said...

wow beautiful beyond eyes!!!!!!

pinkcherrymama said...

man...i truly admire you and your work. i sooo wish i could be there on one of your adventures...i don't think i would have been able to keep myself from going forward either...you gotta think though, what are we really afraid of? ya, i know there are dangers and the real possibility of being beat up or attacked...but why are we afraid to show these people love and compassion...my daughter would say, "mom, let's go take them some blankets, cookies and food and hang out. they just need someone to show them that they are loved." idealistic and crazy? maybe, but why not...

Anonymous said...

Wow, I always drive over this bridge..amazing photos! Very telling..