Freeway Displacements, (Ongoing).

Being born and raised in Los Angeles County, I photographed and investigated the history of Los Angeles and Norwalk, California where I have lived my whole life. This series composed of photographs taken across LA are site specific and in many ways are silent performances. Working with a medium format film camera has allowed me to carefully photograph each place where BIPOC communities were displaced by the construction of the freeways. During the pandemic, I have continuously visited and photographed many of these sites of “slum clearance” and displacements caused by the freeway infrastructure such as Hollenbeck Park, Soto Street Elementary School, and the East Los Angeles Interchange where I have parked on the side of the freeway lane and gotten off my car to photograph these sites on foot. Due to the pandemic, and hours spent on these sites, the photographs present a different view of busy Los Angeles, in a way they are portraits of these neighborhoods and displaced communities. Showing the scarring these constructions have left behind. The still photographs, both serve as archive and a standing still panorama reflecting the history of these sites and arduous present time.

I have also photographed in my home city of Norwalk throughout many different streets along the Santa Ana 5 Freeway. Through my research and living in Norwalk I have come across more areas where homes have been demolished due to the Santa Anna 5 freeway lane expansion. As a person of color I have spent my whole life navigating through these spaces all across LA County, where I have spent countless hours stuck in traffic, especially on the 5 freeway. Bringing forth these tragedies of displacements that were done in the past, many people and commuters in Los Angeles are not aware of what these freeways that we drive on daily have done to minoritarian communities. The homes, businesses, and people that luckily survived the demolition are also being affected, they now sit directly side by side to the concrete freeways. Many of these sites leave behind little to no evidence of the homes that once stood, some leave traces of empty and unoccupied lots sitting next to homes that survived the demolition while directly facing the freeways, others with no traces, only the large concrete freeways across the city landscape.