Down Town, LA _Project 09 #11

I wanted to take this photo for some time now. I have see this scene night after night it was hard to find the courage to soot it. The first time I went to get this shot I saw a man shaping a knife on the sidewalk. He was using it to cut boxes to sleep in. There are people selling drugs on these corners and I’m sure they don’t want their picture taken either. I got a bad feeling and went home empty handed. I could not take it any more it was calling me night after night. I can see this street from my window every night. Finley I went down there at 1:30 am and shoot it. If I could of just walked by and shot a photo it would have been easier. I had to set up a tripod and shoot 10 different exposures for 30 seconds. In LA we all know there are home less but this is an epidemic there are blocks and blocks of people seeping on the streets like this every night down here. I guess the city calls this an answerer to this its problem. I find this very disturbing concerting we are one of the riches country in the world. These are human beans that society has turned there backs on they are left to lie on the street with the trash. My thought on this issue is the system that has been set up in this country dose work and not just on this level. It’s every thing. Could you imagine trying to fix a leek in the hover dam with chewing gum? That is how I feel our government works on these types of issues? It is just crazy to me. Albert Einstein once said “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”. I think this applies to our society.

These are pieces of the original image on the top of the page that I enlarged to show some details that I like. Could you imagine sleeping here?

This one symbolizes how crazy this situation is every light is lit up it add to the the photo i was stoke how it worked out. The way i got this to to appear like this in the photo was by leaving the stutter open for 30 sec.
There is a pigeon sleeping above the homeless people. that says some thing to me as well.
I did not want to really show any one faces but it just happened that there were facing the camera. I'm ok with it because it confirms that these are real people living on he streets.

Down Town, LA _Project 09 #10

On my adventure to the LA River I became mesmerized by the train tracks that run along side the river. I’m not sure why people love to take pictures of train tracks maybe it is the way the tracks meet in the horizon line. I think it is visually pleasing to the eye for some reason.

I like the way the lines lead your eyes to the light. Is it human nature to head towards the light?

I can wait to come back here and shoot there are millions of photos they’re waiting to be captured.

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.

Art Walk_sep_10_09

On Sept 10 at the PE Lofts my friend Carry is putting together an art show called Analog vs. Digital. The show is going to be about different art forms. There will be an analog and digital DJ, panting photography and what ever else fits this format. Mostly it’s just for fun. At the last one he asked me if I wanted to shoot photos of people who stopped by to check it out. I did not know what to think and did not really want to do it. I’m so glad I decided to do it. The photo came out amazing! He asked me to shoot it again so if you in the area stop by. I know you will be stoked if you do!!!!!

These are a few of the images i captured from the last art walk.
The Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk is a free event held every second Thursday in and around the Historic Core's Gallery Row neighborhood. For this one night each month, Downtown LA returns to its historic pedestrian-based culture, a vibrant scene that is itself a draw for locals and tourists seeking an authentic urban experience. Launched in 2004 by the then-gritty neighborhood's pioneer gallerists, Art Walk has become a grassroots urban success story, with upwards of 10,000 people coming out each month to see the newest art exhibits, enjoy the bustling street culture, eat, drink and socialize.

Down Town, LA _Project 09 #8

I was walking by this intersection and I stopped to look at the light coming through the buildings. Right then the police officers walked in to light it saw as if the were subconsciously were asking me to take there photo. So I did.

I just like this photo I don’t know what it is. I still have to mess with it in Photoshop and figure out the colors but I think I will be nice when it done.

Down Town, LA _Project 09 #7

While I was walking through the street of Down Town LA on my photo adventure I passed this alley my friend Jordon and we stopped dead in our tracks. We both were in awe of the scene that was unfolding down this alley. There were three young kids playing soccer it looked like a scene from a movie shoot in a third world country. The sun had set and light was amazing.

We walked down this alley and I started shooting photos. Thing I like about shooting sports is it gives people an escape form every day life. You can feel the fun in this photo even the mom on the side is smiling as her kid play in the street.

I live in Santa Monica for five years. Santa Monica is a beach town in los Angles for the most part I considered it to be white yuppie area. I never saw any kids playing in the streets. As a matter of fact I never saw people out side of the houses. It was strange to me. I think this is why I got so stoked on this scene it reminded me of how my friends I use to play in the street as kids growing up.

I had to put up my hand to stop the ball from hitting the camera in this shoot.This is the alley were these kid call home. Their house is tucked back in there I would of look at this as a soccer filed in tell now.

This is the alley were these kid call home. Their house is tucked back in there I would of never look at this as a soccer filed in tell now.

Down Town, LA _Project 09 #6

Life is a roller costar of events some good some bad. I always think about how that one decision you make can affect the rest of your life. Some how I met my friend Cary Perez and since then it has opened up so many doors for me. The entire Down Town LA Project is a direct effect of this. There is no way I would have got the asses to shoot all these people in such a short time. I would of ever been able to even bring my camera it to this club. Cary has a way with people that you rarely see it is amazing. People trust him from the moment they meet him. He is the type of person that all was makes time to help people out. His range of friend goes from CEO’ s at Apple computers to a bum living on the streets. My point is after meeting him this project was born I just wanted to say thanks homie!

Cary (the guy in the hat) is giving me direction as if an art director would. The funny thing is his direction is better that a lot of the art directors I have worked with. My friend Chris Sanchez shot this while we were taking a brake from shooting. I don’t often see my self in photos as I'm working by looking at this image I can see how intense this shoot was for me. I feel like there is a switch were I go in to another mode when I put a camera in my hands. This was interesting for me to see from an out side prospective.