labor ready

I made a new batch of portraits from around various Los Angeles home depot parking lots. about 14 or 15 in all with the Calumet 4x5, Provia 100 transparency and a  Symmar 210mm. 

When I approach people in the street to take their portraits with my view camera, I've got some explaining

to do about why I am wanting to point a camera at them, something like, "hi I am a photographer making art photographs, I think you are interesting and I would be honored to make a photograph of you. I want people to be able to see what you look like in a very honest straight forward way. I am an artist and this is art ... of sorts, descriptive art, showing what you look like but not who you are, I am not trying to reveal anything thats hidden about you but just what you look like, the story of your life thats written on your face, written on your surface.  thank you!"

La Pearla

A little selection from la Pearla in Puerto Rico. This area is a bit sketchy, there's a lot of drug dealing and other nefarious activities in this zone, but the area is prime real estate being right on the beach and in the old part of San Juan. The cops are routinely going through performing stings and arresting the locals, so they are pretty defensive if you wander through with a camera. I was using my Rollie though, not exactly a stealth camera, so they seemed to tolerate my interest.

lush life

holy shit i have been slack with the blogs, but this is not a reflection of how i have been utilizing the minutes and hours of the day. got a few little surprises coming up. this is a pic of lydia, from champaign trott. circa 06. used hassy with 180mm plus #3 extension ring. gave the shot a little yello or something in ps.

el yunque

we walked around the trails in el yunque.
rollei b/w 120 stitched in PS

santurce pda 15

looking for records on ponce de leon, in san juan, puerto rico.
i heard that la gran discoteca was the spot for vinyl, santurce, parada 15.
all the stars of fania and top hits had appeared there at one time or another. its legendary.
and also history. it had been closed down for a few months, all packed up and gone away.

kaala

returned to la fresqueria for this one. kaala was with jetest in SD.
thankfully i was using my rollie at that moment.
i swear to the gods, what ever you are, i will never go didg. and thats that.

coalesce

family portrait of eric, deborah and their son jonah.

road side tree

some trees by the side of the road in elysian park.

labor ready

mostly undocumented immigrants make themselves available for work on the fringes of big box construction superstore parking lots. outcast from society, predominantly latino and well below the poverty line.

my approach in this set was to describe the undocumented work force in a way that does not explain how they interact with their work environment, but to show their physical appearance, their surface. i refrained from close ups and deviating from the formula of full body shots and spacing in order to describe the topography and subtle continuum.
general communication and contact with this community by the public seems to be avoided.
the irony is that the community is known of and called upon if needed, but otherwise ignored and stigmatized if not.

for this series i used fijifilm provia 100F 4x5 color transparency

echo park avenue

these were taken over the period of a month or so. a set of portraits from echo park avenue.