A Lens To The Streets — Zach Begler Photography

A Lens To The Streets is a long term portraiture project focusing on the housing crisis, mainly in California. The majority of the images are taken on Skid Row in Downtown, Los Angeles. From August 2016 to November of 2019 I spent most of the year living with, writing about, documenting, and collaborating with the men and women who called these streets ‘home’. Documentary at heart, this work emphasizes the distinct objectivity of each person's experience and is a visual survey of the gradual transformations that occur in people and place. Although I was allowed to photograph so many, I focused on my friend Brian, who prefers the title Old School. On day one he took me under his wing, introducing me to everyone, allowing me to photograph his life, and convincing others my intentions were honest to be able to photograph theirs. He believed in me and even went so far as to write poems and pieces to pair with my images to quantify his lived experience. He felt it fitting because he deemed himself the “dean of urban culture.” This project would not have been accomplished without his insight and grace. Our collaborative effort is what pushed the project to its full capacity. I still revisit, so recently as July of 2021, March of 2023, and Christmas of 2023. Old School and I are in regular contact by phone. Since July of 2023, he has lived in an apartment.

Old School is predominately who is pictured as the project shifted towards a telling of our friendship, and is the first person in the gallery.

2016 - 2023, 35mm Kodak Film.

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