"One Square Block on Broadway"

"This project was initially conceived while I was wandering through downtown Los Angeles. The area around Broadway and Fifth Streets fascinated me and the mood was reminiscent of the grimier sections of San Francisco or New York. This is not the larger-than-life, silicone image of itself that LA tends to project. Here, the people take busses and the Metro to work, say more or less what they mean, and avoid eye contact more out of a concern for personal safety than for the sake of a social image. Here also, the people did not ignore me and my camera out of a desire to be chic, but because they generally didn’t give a damn.

"I decided to move south a bit and document the block circumscribed by Broadway and Hill on the east and west, respectively, sandwiched between Sixth and Seventh Streets to the north and south. I wanted to illustrate a feeling of community, perhaps the modern, urban equivalent of a village square, even if it was only found in brief moments of commonality in the street life.

"The following are only a few of the many images captured."

Customer, Globe News, on Sixth Street. The newsstand has occupied a small section of the narrow alley behind the Los Angeles Theatre since 1932. Passed from one Masonic owner to another, the current owner is Harold (Harry) Sheets who runs the stand with his wife Josie. Josie is “Mama” to the locals and they keep an eye out for her. Harry has been the owner for 27 years; Josie joined him from Guadalajara in 1965.

Customers in the St. Vincent’s Jewelry Center, which occupies the south-western corner of the block.

The King of Beepers on Sixth Street is the only store on that stretch of the road that stays open until 8pm. Most of the other stores close between 5 and 6pm.

Residential hotels east of Broadway provide cheap housing for many aged and infirm seniors who daily make their unsteady way down the street.

Broadway and Sixth Streets. A bus stop on Sixth Street had discharged a regular flow of commuters into the early morning light, while stores are still shut tight against theft and vandalism behind security doors and padlocks.