Sunday, February 18, 2007

photos of Los angeles: Looking for inspiration

I love L.A.....no...not like the song....but...really I do...I've lived here my whole life and I don't know of any other city....even though I 'm almost certain that I would quickly fall in love with New York or Chicago when and if I ever go visit there....but, my first true love will most definitely be L.A. Here are some photos of people that I wanted to capture on my once-in-a-while trip that I make to L.A. to capture its denizens and environments. :) enjoy-



I was doing some drawing while sitting on the sidewalk when this inebriated gentleman asked me to do a drawing of him....he wanted me to do a drawing of him on his weight-o-meter....he said his mom gave that to him....His identity bracelet from the hospital was freshly intact and the mumbling words he spoke were freshly basked in alcohol: he even offered me a sip of his bottle of vodka, but I did decline. He hid it behind my back, on the sidewalk as Downtown L.A. officers walked pass us. Nonetheless I did the drawing for him....yes! ...on his weight-o-meter....go figure: he liked it( and no I did'nt charge him....!)...there's something about documenting people that I really enjoy....: I think it comes from my interest in the person first and from the persons interest in being documented. By doing this....by the person allowing for me to document them, and by my interest in documentin, I think, we both validate our existence. He needed someone to take notice of him, I needed to take notice. we complimented each other.


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I ran into these teenage boys skateboarding near the 5th street red line subway entrance a few blocks away. There is something about watching kids just being themselves...being free....scrweing around...not giving a rats ass....that is cool...I vicariously live through their willingness to be themselves...at whatever cost it takes. Just scrwein' around and having fun....with no worries or other preoccuptaions, but to be alive and to show off their skateboarding skills.




1 comment:

Hovig Alahaidoyan said...

Hey Ron - great post.
Now that I'm shooting more myself, I cant wait to come back to LA and document the streets and its people. I never did back when I was in LA which I regret. I really have a problem with approaching people though and I have to get over that. I love shooting architecture but people are much more interesting...
specially in downtown LA...

-Hovig