“To the complaint, ‘There are no people in these photographs,’ I respond, There are always two people: the photographer and the viewer.” — Ansel Adams

The forgotten. Couple weekends ago we dropped off some food door-side for friends near downtown LA. Afterwards we took a quick drive through downtown and I snapped this picture from the car. I always find pictures of our face or body receive the most and immediate engagement, which kind of irritates me a bit sometimes. I used to almost exclusively post scenery and candid pictures of strangers but people mostly want the “pretty” selfies. But I find these kinds of quiet moments are so much more real.

Before this self-isolation, on a micro level, there was always the isolated and deserted around every corner existing in their own silent crises. Crisis was always here faintly lurking; people were dying alone from diseases because they couldn’t afford healthcare. People didn’t have homes and became homeless because of gentrification, with greedy real estate buying up areas during financial crashes (corporations and bankers admittedly LOVE financial crashes because it creates the most opportunities for the corporate sector), raising the rent to ungodly levels to purposely force the poor out and onto the streets. To these people, this current virus crisis is nothing new.

If only we listened to the oppressed, the fringe voices who aren’t represented and those who live outside the mainstream paradigm. The least “popular”, from the homeless to people with disabilities, they have experiences and wisdom about humanity. But we don’t listen until it affects us.

My art gallery

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