On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Steve from Mendocino
In the course of tramping around Los Angeles looking for pictures, I occasionally focused on people. I’ve always been uncomfortable and self-conscious in that role, but I do enjoy living with the images I come back with. The ones I keep going back to are the ones that tell a story or ask a question. These are among my favorites.
I came across this man with a hoe somewhere in the southeast part of the city – not an area I was familiar with. Walking down the street alone carrying a hoe seemed so anachronistic in the late 60’s, and that sense was enhanced by the lack of sidewalk. The only areas I knew always had sidewalks, and this just seemed strangely rural for the city.
The one morning I decided to shoot skid row, this gentleman adopted me and provided informal security as I wandered around. We never exchanged names or any information about one another, but he was welcome company. Seeing him here brings me a sense of warmth and appreciation.
I found these two in a homeless shelter downtown. It seems timeless, the sort of modest pastime between two people that you could find anywhere in the world.
Reminds me of a Renoir or Manet, only… not.
The individual in the upper left introduces intrigue and gets you thinking. There’s not enough information about either to know what kind of person each is or what they’re thinking, but it draws the viewer personally into the picture.
A handsome couple among the audience at a “Love In” at Venice beach. They radiate a sense of self and purpose.
A biker at the same outdoor concert in Venice. I offered him and his buddies prints of the photos and they gave me the name of a bar where I could drop them with the bartender, which I did several days later.
This last shot is a total cheat. In the first place, it’s on the beach in San Diego, not Los Angeles. In the second place I knew both of these two from UCSD. They were not an item at the time I attended UCSD, but I ran into them when I was doing my San Diego assignment for Art Center. We decided to hang together for a bit, and this happened while we were at the beach. For me, the photo just feels so real and unfiltered.
Mary G
Art.
Dan B
These are very evocative. I keep finding more fascinating details in each – the composition, the light quality, the emotion, the stillness, and more. Does BJ need an ‘On the Road’ calender with a favorite selection from each person who’s submitted? Each submission is a different energy.
The recipient could be animal shelters or we could donate to striving artists.
raven
1 percenter, bad dudes.
JPL
Amazing.
Laura Too
Wonderful, thanks!
Jerry
These are great.
I want more of the bikers and the AA couple above the biker photo.
cope
Thank you. These are more than just pretty pictures. These show the power of photography.
I am currently trying to salvage hundreds of B&W negatives that I took in the late ’60s through early ’70s. Stored in the old type wax paper sleeves and then in a flood when I was out of town, they dried and the emulsion side of the strips of negatives annealed to the sleeves.
Thanks again.
pluky
Regarding the guy with the hoe, were there any agricultural areas nearby? He might have been waiting for a ride, or just walking, to work.
Steve from Mendocino
@cope: Those are glassine, not wax paper. Wax paper would immediately coat the negatives with oil. I would soak them in water and, let them become unstuck. Rinse them in a photographic solution that prevents water spots. (I forget what it was called, but it’s like soap in that it prevents water from beading). Hang them up to dry in a dust free location, and they should be fine.
Steve from Mendocino
@pluky: Probably walking to work, but it was an industrial area. There must have been some residual agricultural activities of some sort.
bluefoot
These photos are really beautiful – as Dan B said, evocative. I love photos from that time period – to me it always seems there was a wider range of “normal” style/presentation for individuals.
Geminid
@pluky: The man with the hoe could be a masonry laborer on his way to mix mortar for brickmasons. It’s big like a mortar hoe. People still use a hoe to mix mortar on stone jobs, or when the cement mixer conks out.
cope
@Steve from Mendocino: Glassine…I should have known that. Thanks Steve. I’ll try that. I think Photo Flo is what we used to keep water droplets off the film when I used to develop my own. I’ll track some down.
The whole process of trying to save my negatives is enlightening to say the least. The ones I can view clearly enough to identify locations, people, events and such can be surprising since it’s been five decades since I shot them.
AliceBlue
I would love to have a book of your photographs.
JanieM
Each one invites a careful look.
The man on the left in the jigsaw puzzle photo looks like someone from my childhood — I can’t quite put my finger on who, but it makes an interesting subtext. Also — the hats on both of them, and the lefthand guy’s hat, and tidy shirt — all intriguing.
Steve from Mendocino
@AliceBlue: I’ve tried books, and the print on demand companies (Blurb, etc.) have very poor quality control. I get color shifts in the shadows which are reliably horrible and reliably variable from one book to the next. I’ve had good success with actual photo prints, and I’d be happy to send you those at cost. Get my email from Water Girl, if you’re interested, and we can discuss details.
Ruckus
@Steve from Mendocino:
I was trying to see if I could recognize the area, it looks familiar. How far southeast of downtown LA was that?
dfh
These are so good. Thank you, Steve from Mendo and WaterGirl.
Steve from Mendocino
@Ruckus: About 52 years. (Don’t have a clue. I’d just drive around until I saw a shot).
Michael Cain
I really like all of these :^)
Re that first no-sidewalks shot… I have spent much of the last 30 years bicycling around NW Denver and the neighboring suburbs. Even today, it is surprising how many places there are with no sidewalks, including sections of major roads. Ditto the scattering of little truck farming places, still irrigated from hundred-year-old ditches. And what are effectively wilderness “highways” along creeks and railroad rights-of-way — the usual little prey mammals plus everything from deer to foxes to coyotes to an occasional mountain lion. Oh, and don’t forget the rattlesnakes. One of my favorite stretches of creek is the part where a couple of old guys pan for gold after the snow melt has gone down. They work about three miles downstream from the site where the original Colorado gold strike was made. There are some of the oddest little businesses tucked away in places like that. My favorite is one run by a couple of guys whose entire business is making custom bits for milling wood trim to match big restoration projects.