'East of West L.A.': a photographic journey

It’s been a long-joked-about phenomenon that many Angelenos consider East Los Angeles any area east of La Brea Avenue and that some Westsiders seldom wander east of the 405.

Poet and photographer Kevin McCollister has journeyed through most of those streets and captured the images in his book "East of West L.A." A select few of the 55 photos include shots of Venice and the Santa Monica Pier, but "in my mind," said McCollister, "they qualify as East in spirit and are not the epitome of glam that is attached to the Westside."

His version is not the cliché L.A. story, feathered with fortune and celebrity. His photos are counterintuitive as to what many people think of when they think of Los Angeles: a news vendor, the 4th Street bridge, the Los Angeles River or a homeless woman wearing a Burberry scarf.

On his days off from the Writers Guild, McCollister would rise with the dawn and wander the streets, back alleys and vacant lots, absorbing the city in its raw, naked form with all its imperfections. "I wanted to show a counterbalance, another viewpoint of the city," he said. "It can be beautiful but not always in an upper-class way." And he conceived a new project: to walk all of the city’s streets. A regular stop was the area around Our Lady Queen of Angels. "It's always a hive of activity with street vendors and the homeless mixing with a lot of very devout churchgoers," said McCollister.

For "Christmas Eve Morning," he encountered an abandoned, neatly folded bundle of homeless paraphernalia, perfectly wrapped like a Christmas present. 

"Perhaps it’s because he wasn’t originally from L.A. that he has this innocent fascination with this city, where most of us are car-captive and self-contained to our own neighborhoods," said Brooks Roddan, founder of the independent press If Pub, which is releasing the book, and a native Angeleno. He was intrigued by McCollister’s commitment to walk all of L.A., an unfamiliar and bewildering notion to many residents. "Kevin was seeing the city with fresh eyes but with a dark sensibility," he added.

McCollister attended Ohio University and arrived in Los Angeles 20 years ago via Boston. The former deck hand on the Mississippi’s Delta Queen steamboat began taking photos as a modest enterprise for a photo blog in 2005 to show pictures of L.A. to his brother living in Taiwan, and the project grew from there.

He notes poets Walt Whitman and William Carlos Williams as the biggest influences on his craft
The project was originally conceived as a book of verse, but during the two-year period, Kevin, who lives on the east side of the Westside, began taking photos and stopped writing.

"Kevin’s poems are now his photographs," said Roddan. "People don’t know the real wonders of this city," he added, hoping that the photos will pique people’s curiosity to get out and explore other neighborhoods.

As for McCollister: "This is my lifetime project," he said. "I’m going to walk all of L.A."

-- Liesl Bradner

Images: Top, "East of West L.A." book cover. Right, "Christmas Eve Morning," credit Kevin McCollister

　

　

　

Comments

[William Wray]

http://walkinginla.com/

is this the same guy?

[Kristian]

You have to be naive to consider all of West LA "glam". I can show you parts of West LA that are as gritty as anything else in this city.

[El Vergudo]

LA doesn't end at downtown. You know that place the city just spent millions on just to extend the gold line? It's called East LA.

Oh I'm sorry, I guess if you acknowledged it you would have to include all the Mexicans as part of your city. My bad.

[Dario, Cal State L.A. student.]

I'm am very likely to pick up this book. I want to see his images, of what I call the Anglo Eastside. As a life long resident of L.A., and a Chicano (Mexican-American), I've noticed that there is a spatial difference between what Mexican-Americans and Anglos consider the Eastside. In converstaions with Anglo and non-Mexican-American peers, some think of Echo Park as the beginning of East L.A., but to Mexican-Americans East L.A. begins when you cross any of the bridgers that take you over the L.A. River to Boyle Heights, east of the L.A. River. I think the Anglo notion of Eastside/Westside is centered around the New York metality based on which side of Central Park you like on. Or possibly, the which side of the Brooklyn Bridge you live on mentality if not Central Park.

If Keving is the same guy from walkingla.com, I have a path suggestion. Walk east on Sunset (beginning, say at Amoeba Music) until it becomes Cesar Chavez(formerly Brookly). Continue on Cesar Chavez until in ends at Atlantic Blvd in Monterey Park. It's a long path and will take up all day. It's a great way to see some of the diverstiy of Los Angeles.

[Virginia]

I have followed Kevin's blog for quite some time. He continues to amaze and inspire me as a photographer. He has a gift. I am so pleased that his work is now being published. It's high time.
V

[DR. Parviz Koupai]

I don't think Burj Dubai is a true sign of Dubai culture. It is in reality another example of Western culture erected in one of the backward regions of the world. It has been a good way to return the oil money back in the pockets of Western consumers. Without the Western consumerism these high rise buildings end up being a ghost town sooner or later. PK

[Kevin McCollister]

No, "Walking Guy" is not my site.

My blog is here: http://jimsonweed.blogspot.com/

Kevin M.

[Donald Frazell]

Um, eight million folks in LA County alone, this covers maybe a coupla hundred thousand. You want diversity, come to southeast LA county, the Long Beach-Artesia-Bellflower area, the most diverse in the nation. And taken for granted, its natural, not forced like WLA types who find nonwhites and working class ones "exotic" or dangerous, to many "urban youth" because they fear going anywhere that may have bus service. Been watching Grand Canyon too much, retarded movie about Anglo fears and weakness. and complete and total cultural vacuity.

And so, weak artistes. I knew photographers three decades ago who covered this are as well if not better, just that no way would they get published, anglos control that. Even Pasadena-Altadena-Alhambra San Gabriel area would be tens times more interesting. Why dont you try going south of Pico, that is still WLA? Scared of the rich black folks of Baldwin Hills and Leimert Park? LOL! Culver City is as far as these types will travel except to drive down La Ceinaga to the airport.

Look like snapshots anyway, photography is about capturing light, but academic phjotography just as weak understanding it as painters these days know color beyond retarded color theory classes based on Alber's pantone charts. Newsflash kids, that aint art.

sigh, art collegia delenda est

Save the Watts Towers, tear down the Ivories.
Cant wait for the complementary south, north and east LA books to come out, wouldnt that be inclusive and just as important as this? Guess not, vanity wouldnt stand for it, Dorian Grays looking in those mirrors. Its all about you.

[Kyle Wegner]

Where is the Eastside of Los Angeles? Watch this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcbzuQM0RIg

http://www.vimeo.com/7871595

[Chris]

Hey Donald, you win.

Now go write your book.

[LMRS]

I love the photos in this book!