The Black Wall Project was started by me and a photographer by the name of Dick Sanders, whom I had befriended when I had lived in Joshua Tree, California and needed access to a darkroom to continue my photography work.
In 2006, Dick and I were walking down on 5th Street towards the Rossyln Hotel in downtown Los Angeles, and I glanced over and saw a wall painted charcoal black and thought it made a stark, natural backdrop as people passed by it. I decided to stand in front of the wall and asked people who passed by if I could photograph them.
Very few people in this series were homeless, and it was a transition period for the Skid Row area that was slowly becoming populated by new residential and commercial properties. There were several people who didn't agree to be photographed, but there were quite a few who did. These are some of the photographs I made from my visits to Los Angeles, between 2006 to 2013.
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