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Statement by the photographer, Brian CROSS
"Los
Angeles has a way of creeping up on you. From Ladera Heights to El
Sereno from San Pedro to L.A. Crescenta it envelops you, spins its oil
slicked web around you and kisses you with its marine layer sunrises and
dramatic smog filtered sunsets. I have lived in Los Angeles and indeed
called it home for eighteen years. I never thought I would say that but
it's been eighteen years and I'm still here. These photographs were made
in Los Angeles at the beginning of March 2008.
Equipped
with a daily map and a slew of Dickies we drove the length and breadth
of the city to make these images. The light you see is the light of the
city. From cloud covered gloomy days in downtown with bike messengers
competing with each other on their day off to the ochres and blues of a
Silverlake sunset overlooking Frog Town - few cities have this.
Dickies
are the work clothes of Los Angeles. At every turn we would find a
waiter, a hotel bus boy, a mail delivery person or a security guard
wearing them. It was as though the city had already dressed for the
shoot - of course Los Angeles wakes up everyday dressed and ready for a
Dickies shoot. So many of our subjects declared "I'm not sure that I
have any Dickies" and then showed up to be photographed wearing a pair
of pants or a shirt explaining, "This is all I wear I just didn't
realize they were Dickies". It's as though the brand can be as invisible
as it is omnipresent.
It's not
that often that you have the chance to photograph people at work in
your own city and be compensated for it. It was a great pleasure to make
these portraits - from my favorite mechanic to an old Dogtown skater
who now plays harmonica and cleans pools - they all had stories. Big
stories, small stories - stories of adversity and stories of commitment.
Stories of dreams dreamt and stories of dreams deferred." (© B+)
Content
The photo book 'Working in Los Angeles' von Brian CROSS (B+) portraits of twelve working men and two women in square color photographs. Chapter by chapter he introduces the viewer by several sized photographs and texts & interview s at the end of the book (on a colored offset paper). The documented people are mostly younger than forty years old and have several jobs as Tattoo artist, guitar teacher, stunt driver, bike mechanic, painter/musician, screenwriter, hairdresser/graffiti artist, pool tech, taco stand worker, mechanic/drag racer, custom bike builder, coffee shop worker/poet or longshoreman.