a decidedly unglamorous urban scene

I was going south on Highland, stopped six or so cars behind the light on Hollywood, when I took this picture yesterday afternoon. 

IMG00572 

You can't see it, because it's just out of the frame on the left, but if you were to face north and go past that bar, you would an empty storefront that still has a crumbling sign and vague paint outline in the window that once identified it as a record store. I don't know what that giant construction project behind it is, but I suspect it'll be a hotel. Cross the street, and you're in a strip mall, where I saw a transvestite prostitute walking out of a 7-11, whacking a box of Marlboro Lights against the palm of one hand.

It's not a particularly special or unique scene; you could find something like this in any big American city, but I was inspired to take this picture by what you can't see. If you were behind the camera and looked over your right shoulder, all you would be able to see is the giant Hollywood and Highland complex, home of the Kodak theater.

Isn't that weird? Just a few hundred yards is all that separates this decidedly unglamorous, mundane urban scene from the home of the Academy Awards and American Idol. 

…not every facade in Hollywood is built on a studio backlot.

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54 thoughts on “a decidedly unglamorous urban scene”

  4. I usually have my little Canon point-n-shoot in the car, but this was taken with my shitty Blackberry camera, and I'm absolutely astonished that the quality is so good.

  5. I think someone on Twitter mentioned that there is a really great lunch special there, so you're probably right!

  6. Is parking in L.A. as outrageous as it is in I don’t know…say NYC or Center City Philadelphia? I’d imagine that it is…

  7. My blackberry photos NEVER look like this. The $2 parking seems cheap, and have you seen the memory cards for cameras that are WiFi, then you can use your point and shoot for stuff like this!

  9. Too bad the tranny prostitute with the pack of cigarettes didn’t end up in the shot. If it’s anything like the picture I’ve got in my mind, it would have been awesome.

  10. Yes, that is rather humorous! It would be the equivalent of a nail salon being called “Le salon d’ongle” right in the heart of Koreatown…

  11. I think that's one of those things where your imagination is always going to be superior to the reality.
    …she *was* wearing shiny blue hotpants, though. I mean, that's some serious commitment (and presumably painful tucking).

  12. Oh don’t you worry. Wil got that shot. He’s just not sharing with the rest of the class.
    Ooh ooh, Edit function still works! See, I told you! He’s got it committed to memory? I don’t know, Wil…and BTW did you know that you were in The Last Starfighter?” My Mom just figured that one out yesterday!

  13. That entire intersection has really gone through quite a lot of change since I came out here in ’96. I remember parking at the crappy parking garage on Orange to see movies at the Chinese, and hoping like hell I’d survive the walk back at midnight. That block of buildings in the picture is almost all that remains from that time.

  14. That’s one of the things I’ve always been intrigued by in cities. If you venture into the suburbs or further you find that there are very defined areas that would be considered wealthy, middle class, poor, etc. Some cities just have that jumble where you can have something like this or even more pronounced.
    It’s something I noticed a great deal wandering around on foot the first time I went to New Orleans. The difference between the wealthy areas like the French Quarter and the Garden District and the poverty you find in the housing projects that are within a short walk is just amazing. I’ve noticed it a lot when I visit L.A. too. The showy glitz and glamour of Hollywood, Beverly Hills, etc. is really not that far removed from the poorer sections of the city.
    It would definitely be a cool subject for a photo series if you could get vantages that could combine parts of both.
    Ok, that was much more long winded than I meant it to be to say that it was a cool observation…

  15. Oh wow crazy. I love LA for this very reason. The seedy LA juxtaposed against the “Hollywood Glamour”. I grew right in that neighborhood and know it well. I think that record store used to be Aaron’s records. Oh those were the days.

  16. Sad case that I am I checked out the neighbourhood on Google Street View. Can’t decide where you were when you took this picture. Outside GAP looking back the way? Anyway I really like this photograph. Very atmospheric and quite exotic to a Scot who’s never been west of Washington DC.

  18. The Power House was one of Charles Bukowski’s drinking holes. My friends and I frequently got drunk there before heading out for the evening. I also bought numerous CD’s from that now shuttered store. I miss the early nineties…sigh…

  19. To someone that has never been to LA, or the US, it’s interesting to see things like this.
    I laughed when I noticed that the curly metal bits on the shopfront next to “Le Oriental Bistro” made it look like a face.

  21. You get this same sort of demographic disconnect in Chicago, where I live. A good example is Cabrini Green, the famed public housing complex featured in “Candyman” and the television show “Good Times.” When I first moved to the city, I was shocked to find Cabrini Green was located only about a five-minute walk from the famed Miracle Mile, and was surrounded on its immediate borders with gentrified condos with prices approaching $1 million.
    Likewise, the famed view of the Wrigley Building stands over a maze of substreets filled this time of year with massive encampments of homeless. Cities by their very natures are collections of contradictions.

  22. I’m fascinated by urban decay right next to prosperity (or renewal in the case of the towering monstrosity of the new W hotel going up on Argyle and Hollywood). I often walk around with my camera trying to document exactly what you described, Wil, the things you most often dont see when being shown Hollywood.

  23. Hey, I recognize that! I ate at that Chinese restaurant my very first trip to L.A. back in ’99. We were staying across the street at what was then the Holiday Inn, which closed a week later for demolition. As I recall, the food was pretty good despite the sketchy facade.

  24. That’s exactly the impression I’ve had in the few US cities I’ve vistited (LA, Dallas, St. Louis, New Orleans – just half a year before Katrina, Memphis, Nashville), splendour and squallour seemed never far from each other, sometimes just a street.
    The apparent poverty of some places was really shocking to a European like me.

  25. Was that an Aaron's? I remember shedding a silent tear when the Aaron's down on LaBrea (or was it Highland?) closed down. I didn't know there was more than one location.

  27. Most of the facades in Hollywood aren’t on studio backlots – hell, half of them end up on national media.
    But beneath every facade is another reality, something else worth exploring – which, to quote Tom Stoppard, “is a kind of integrity if you look at every exit as an entrance somewhere else.”

  28. Walk about 100 feet away from the Strip in Las Vegas and you see the same kind of thing. Or a few blocks from the Mag Mile in Chicago. It’s always sad to see.

  29. Do you ever have one of those OMG moments, or have you seen it all? lol! Probably the latter huh:) One thing is for sure, you would never get bored in traffic, with all the crazy things to see around LA. You seem to be good at taking clear shot pics! Mine always come out a big mess.

  30. I saw an example of this in Jakarta that was truly astonishing. I looked on super high rise building, gleaming steel and glass. Then I could turn and walk through an alley that honestly reminded me of Kyle Reese coming back to base in The Terminator with people in niches cooking things over tiny braziers. It was jarring, to say the least.

  31. It’s something I’ve noticed in almost every city I’ve been too. The posh areas are almost without fail only a short distance away from some of the worst slums in them.
    London’s Docklands district is a classic example. Apartments in Docklands will set you back stunning amounts for virtually a shoe box. Literally go underneath the bridge under the London Docklands Light Railway, say around All Saints and you’re into significantly cheap places.
    The docks were very profitable, but a real dive of an area, about what you’d expect for a cargo port: forever dirty and reliant on cheap labour. As the docks began to fall into disuse in the run up to the 80s (couldn’t cope with containers) the whole area just became an abandoned mess, with cheap housing and high unemployment. Goverment took over control of the abandoned mess and added serious tax incentives to encourage use (no property taxes, easy planning permission) Up sprung major commercial buildings and the luxury high-profit housing to support them.

  32. I’ve been to L.A. a few times, and to be honest, street parking is retarded. BUT there are tons of parking garages. Whenever I’ve gone to Hollywood Highland, which is close to where this was taken, I park at a garage that’s right across the street and Orange and Hollywood.

  33. It is showing us of the past through the lens of a camera but the present and the future lurk behind us, not to be captured by the flash for the whole world to see what really comes out during the day…reality.

  34. Oops, that’s actually what I meant, but omitted a few words in my haste. I was talking about the parking garages. Put it to you this way: the last time I had jury duty, I had to spend 15 bucks to park my car in a garage that was at least 10 city blocks away from Independence Hall. The closer you get to William Penn, the higher the prices get for parking garages. Coincident or not that my fee for the day came out to exactly 15 dollars? And don’t even get me started about concerts and sporting events! Arena Parking here in Philly is BRUTAL. Don’t expect to pay less than 25 or 30 bucks, and then on top of it, you have shady characters that hang around the parked cars and offer to “protect” your car until you return. If you don’t offer them at least ten bucks, you come back to a seriously compromised car. That’s why I’m glad that I live up in the far Northeast section of the city. I have an indoor garage and a driveway, so I don’t have to deal with any of that nonsense. Mostly everybody I know that works down in Center City does Park & Ride because it’s either spend a ridiculous amount of money on parking every day, or take the train downtown. At least the train’s tax deductible.

  35. Wil,
    Your latest entry looks like a conversation a friend and I had about the White House. If your picture was in black and white it would look like the year 1931 all over again. Lets all hope that things get better very soon.
    FG

  36. Weegee reportedly had to cheat to fit such a scene into his famous news photo “The Critic.” He actually had his assistant liquor up a barfly in the Bowery, bring her to the opera, and let go of her as two rich society ladies landed on the red carpet for a waiting press. The Bowery lady’s reaction to the society ladies was real, but she wouldn’t have gotten to air her opinion without a bottle of wine and a ride uptown.
    But check out more of Weegee’s photography from the 1940’s and ’50s. It might be your cup of tea.

  37. A while back I was in line at the Avalon for a concert (I think it was Opeth, but don’t quote me on that) And at one point I was standing right next to a homeless man, he was lying partially on a walk of fame star and he was pissing all over himself. I think, for me anyway, that perfectly encapsulates Hollywood (and to a lesser extent LA as a whole). A shiny monument to someone elses success, surrounded by the smell of urine.
    -SND

  38. Also worth pointing out you were probably directly above the subway tunnel that was the supposed setting for the chase seen in The Italian Job (remake).

  42. Hi Wil, I was just in Pasadena Wed and Thur for meetings at JPL. One of the nights we had dinner at Louise’s and then walked around “old town” for a while to help digest the wonderful food. I’m always struck by how things start to look “older” once you move away from the main drag.
    Like your insights about the scene there on Highland.

  44. Thank you for sharing that interesting picture, Wil! I guess, it reminds us that glamour and vanity do exist along with and alongside banality and every-day struggling. Not only in cities, but there we have them very close together.

  45. I think i’ve got this beat. Here in Toronto, Canada, in our busiest shopping mall downtown parking for 2 HOURS to SHOP=$25
    It is RETARDED.
    As for L.A. where ever I’ve gone and parked in a garage, I’ve never paid more than $5 for parking. So I was impressed

  47. That reminds me of walking around Germany and being ambushed by architecture. You could be walking down this street of completely unremarkable mid-twentieth century apartment blocks, all stained concrete and lackluster landscaping, and then WHAM! Fourteenth century Gothic church!
    I’ve always been taught that “context is everything”. I wonder how that effects this phenomenon…?

  48. If you’re interested in photographic dichotomy, you should come here to Washington DC where you can take a picture of the US Capitol and crumbling, ramshackle storefronts inhabited by homeless people all in the same frame. It’s depressing and shameful.

  49. I moved to Hollywood last year. I’m from Massachusetts, lived in Salem most of my life. One could argue that I traded one tourist trap for another. I found this entry interesting because it illustrates just how much is the same everywhere you go. My last apartment in Salem; exit the front door, turn right and walk 2 blocks – you’re in ‘the ‘Hood.’ Exit the front door and walk two blocks left – you’re in the heart of Salem’s touristy maritime district on Pickering Wharf.

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