Venice, CA

Iron Flatline · Dec 26, 2006

Well, seeing as I'm getting (some) positive feedback on my recent trip downtown Los Angeles, I thought I'd share my shots from Venice ten days ago.

These are some white gang kids that hang around the boardwalk. Venice used to be very tough neighborhood as far as gang warfare went, right up until the riots in 1992. After that there was an overall truce, and a lot of people went to prison. The movie American History X set a story in that world.

During the day it's perfectly fine there nowadays, but I still would prefer not to bump into a crowd of drunken kids there, esp. at night.

One of the things they did to gentrify the place was to allow spray-painting at certain locations. One of the issues they had was people spraying over one-another's tags, but now there's so many artists down there it's hard to spot the tags amongst the many multi-colored (and thus expensive) tags.

This is a really shy kid that was just sitting in the spray pit across from Speedway. He was writing, and was very quiet. I tried to engage him in conversation, but he wanted to be left alone. He allowed me to take pictures though.

I wonder if he will become the man pictured below as he grows older...

This guy below was pretty funny, but the finger he gave was meant seriously. He did not like the guy. Who knows.

And finally... what would be a trip to Venice without some body builders? The man shot below says his name is Dave, and that he's been lifting there since 1983. He had no front teeth, and I gave him two bucks to pose for me.

He says he used to be a lot bigger:

Oh... and two hippies who have seen more free-loving days:

Sultan AlZaabi · Dec 26, 2006

Kool Pictures
KOOL SHOTS. I like the picture {{ no. 2 }} it's looks awsome it's something man , hope to see more pictures.

Regards
Sultan

notelliot · Dec 26, 2006

i haven't enjoyed a series this much in a while.

i'd check exif if i could, but i can't figure it out. what were you using?

Iron Flatline · Dec 26, 2006

These shots are up at my site, where I display EXIF. Not trying to drive traffic, but I'm too lazy to cut-and-paste.

See my signature for a link to my photoblog

D-50 · Dec 26, 2006

Not trying to start an argument but I think your assumptions about these people are absurd. Why would a young quiet kid writing alone become a drunk bum? Also just because kids dress in baggy clothes and smoke cigarettes does not mean they are in a gang.

Chiller · Dec 26, 2006

Cool shots Iron. Looks like a great place to shoot. The second is my fave. Nicely done.

Iron Flatline · Dec 26, 2006

Hehe, no I don't think that kid will become the guy at all - I just thought they're both wearing clothes with the same colors, there seemed to be a lot of visual commonality between them.

...and if you don't recognize those kids as gang kiddies, then you obviously don't spend a lot of time on the West Side of LA.

THORHAMMER · Dec 26, 2006

D-50 said:
Not trying to start an argument but I think your assumptions about these people are absurd. Why would a young quiet kid writing alone become a drunk bum? Also just because kids dress in baggy clothes and smoke cigarettes does not mean they are in a gang.

---------------------------------
Hillarious,

re-read Irons post. Slow down this time.
He is merely talking about how it USED to be there.

PlasticSpanner · Dec 26, 2006

Nice series! Very gritty & "honest".

Nice simple write up too! Just enough information to compliment the photos.

Many thanks for posting these! :thumbup:

Iron Flatline · Dec 27, 2006

One more, just to rub it in for you ice & snow people....

Venice, CA on a December day:

My blog entry for this:

It's winter in LA. The beaches are empty, but the light is beautiful. I went out to Venice yesterday. In summer the place is unbearable. It's full of tourists who have come to LA under the mistaken assumption that this is a tourist town, and are desperately looking for something to do. Usually you see families being dragged around by some recently-arrived college student (or actor/waiter) who is stuck entertaining his guests for a whole weekend with no idea what to do with them.

I've had to do this many times - Hollywood ("Gee, there's the sign") and then Mann's Chinese theater ("Clark Gable had small hands...") followed by a trip to various outdoor malls (The Grove!) and then Venice "... to look at all the Freaks." You can do 3rd Street in SM, and maybe Universal City Walk, but then you're out of activities. Time to hand your guests the key to the car, and a manual to the nav system.

Well, we're moving to Berlin soon. That's infinitely more tourist friendly.

But like I said earlier ...it's winter in LA, and for now the city is ours, and the weather is never better. It's our little secret out here.