Wet Plate Collodion Lauren Graham

 When I opened the bay door to the loading dock behind my building thousands of photos emerged. I had been shooting out of the front side of the PE lofts where I live. I just was not felling it. It didn’t feel like los angles too me. From my loft I can look down onto Los Angeles st  it is amazing. Since the day I moved in I wanted to shoot on this street. A year ago I brought my digital camera down to this street to shoot and didn’t get very good results. I think I just looked like some yuppie trying to exploit people. Yesterday I set up my dark room up on the loading dock that opens up to LA st. The people on the streets accepted it. That camera draws a lot of attention and people just want to get their photo taken by her.

I called my new neighbor Lauren up to see if wanted to shoot at my new studio (Los Angeles st). We ended up getting some beautiful photos. This is going to be where you can find me for the month. I’m so stoked on it. Now that this door has opened I’m going to focus my camera on the people of LA st.

Lauren has a tattoo on her heart that says, “trust for sale”. I was very fascinated by it. I had to get a photo of it.  We started talking about how we wanted to shoot it. I thought it would look funny with her braw on because of where it was placed. I felt like the message had to be a felling of being exposed and vulnerable. So I just asked and she said ya lets do this. We shot here straight up on the street in the daylight.  It needed to be raw and gritty. So I used all my old chemicals and let the wind blow the dirt from the city on to the plate before I exposed it. Its not every day someone is willing to expose their soul for a photo let alone to the world.  She is one of the coolest girls I know. Thank you for these photos.

I did quite get what I was looking for with this image so I stopped shooting after this photo. I need to rethink this one. I am going to try to reshoot this at some point. As far as this image goes I love it.

Photo: Lauren Graham
Location: Los Angeles St LA,Ca