I am a photographer. In my search for found backdrops and interesting locations over the years, I have dissected Los Angeles. Over and over I look at the streets, the signs, the new and the old buildings. Every day I look for something I may have overlooked. In L.A., the beautiful and the ugly are spread out before you like an enormous garage sale. If you are curious about becoming a photographer, or you just like to take pictures, I’m writing this to remind you that you will never know your city. You will develop patterns, and like a well-behaved racehorse you will go round and round your designated track, but I want you to look sideways and upside down. I want you to find the secret life of the landscape of your city.
What surrounds the things you see affects your opinion of them. If the oranges were sold next to the bleach and the toilet paper in your supermarket you probably wouldn’t want to eat the oranges. The oranges as an object would be redefined. Look at your city that way. Separate every building from its background in your mind and then see if that changes your viewpoint. Get closer and see if the details are different when you isolate them. Think about the light and the time of day—do the shadows change your world? Do your memories need to be included in the story or cast out?
I grew up in Los Feliz, where Mickey Mouse was born. There are many spooky forgotten spots here.
I find that I always go back to the places that I visited as a kid and as a teenager. I like to try to recapture my memories in some abstract way. I shot the observatory this way because it reminds me of the days my friends and I would ditch school and wander through the hills surrounding this building.
I went to Lake Tahoe with Kate and Laura Mulleavy (of Rodarte) and Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice. We stopped in Truckee on our way to the Donner Party museum. Kate and Laura are the best tour guides—they do massive research on any area we are visiting and a plan is quickly formed. We stop a lot along the way to our destinations. I recommend you always document the journey, not just the destination. When you are editing later, you may find that one photo along the way really helps explain the emotions you felt when you got there. The lace curtain in this little building behind the mortuary in Truckee helps express the feeling I had when I was walking around the Donner Party museum later that day. It is the kind of abstract connection that I am usually very drawn to in my storytelling.
I’ve worked with Jenny Lewis and Johnathan Rice separately for many years on various projects of theirs. They are partners in music and in life. Jenny and I really like the creating photos that look like scenes from a movie that was never made. This photo was taken from a kitchen window. I wanted it to feel voyeuristic. I wanted them to look like they thought they were alone. I wanted it to seem somewhat ominous. This is a colorful photo, so I intentionally looked for a mood that was dark and passionate to thread through it. Look for opposites when you shoot. It can be really interesting to try to transform the meaning of a location based on the way you direct your subject.
I used to hate palm trees and now I am completely fascinated by them. Growing up in L.A., I realized that all my memories of making out when I was a teenager have palm trees in the distance. Through a window, behind a parking lot, in a park. Try putting a personal memory into a photo that is the least noticed part of the photo. It can lead you to interesting places.
I photograph a lot of power lines. Power lines are like snowflakes. No two spots are exactly the same. Over the years I will have collected a lot of these photos. This is something that I photograph long term. What do you keep going back to? How will you chart your memories over the years?
I took this photo for a look book for Peter Jensen. I love red, white, and blue and find ways to combine those colors in a lot of my work. Megan is standing on a high stack of apple boxes. How does the angle you shoot affect the image of the person? How do your obsessions leak into your work?
This was for a fashion story for Paper magazine. Spider-Man was trying to get in my shot, or sabotage it, I’m not sure. I switched my focus to him, but kept Lucia large in the frame. Somehow this made it funny and dreamy at the same time. I love opposites—things that don’t belong sometimes perfect the moment.
The orange in the distance made the foreground more beautiful to me. Strong color in a monochromatic setting is another thing I hunt for.
I found this sign and knew I had to shoot Beck there. Some people know how to complete an idea. If I give Beck a piece of the puzzle, he knows exactly where to put it. Try shooting all your friends, if they’ll let you. You might find that one person really knows how to tie themselves to an abstract idea. Photographing someone for many years can lead to a creative shorthand that is very fulfilling. I have been shooting Beck for 15 years. He is a muse for me.
The details on this fountain bring back a lot of memories for me. I skinned my knee here when I was 7, I kissed a boy here when I was 19.
Ugly can be beautiful. Beautiful can be ugly. Bring your camera with you wherever you go.
This painting is what you see before the ride starts. I love this ride with all my heart. What is the one detail that reminds you of how you feel about a place? Does that feeling transform when you shoot it in black and white?
I took a Polaroid in 2000 of a mural that was near my old junior high. I showed it to the singer-songwriter Elliott Smith and we decided to shoot there. It became the cover of his album Figure 8. The funny thing is that for years I used to pass that mural every day and think, That is the ugliest mural I have ever seen in my life. It was next to a McDonald’s where the kids in my school that were in gangs would meet to fight off-campus. That was where the showdowns were, especially the girl fights. They were bloody and brutal. Next to this bloodbath over burgers was a stereo repair shop with this obnoxious mural painted over the entire wall. The whole block looked like hell. Over time I started to become obsessed with it. I couldn’t explain why, but I felt compelled to show it to Elliott. Maybe the brutality of the fights I witnessed next door snuck into the story of that photo. Something was so wrong that eventually it was right.
Autumn de Wilde is know for her documentary and portrait work in music, fashion, and film. Her fourth book, BECK, comes out next month from Chronicle Books.
32 Comments
Wow this is really cool. Great photographs! I love this diy!
I wish I knew Beck!!!!!!!!! Fab pics!
Oooh, Autumn, this gave me chills. I am not a photographer (blurry cell phone pics are my forte) but I really enjoyed reading about your perspectives on interpreting the world around you.
I like this! Not exactly much of a diy, but full of inspiration.
Yeah, I thought it would be cool to try to do a DIY that’s more about approaching some kind of art than a step-by-step tutorial. Would you guys wanna see more of these? The tutorials will stay but I like hearing about people’s process. Might just be my own geekiness though.
i loved this! thank you so much for these inspiring images and helpful photography tips, Autumn. i grew up in los angeles (well, the valley) and recently moved to the east coast for college so it is wonderful to see pictures of california!
p.s. i completely agree that you can never really know your city. there is so much to explore and things change so often that there is always something new to discover. which is kind of sad but also really exciting!
Wow this was really interesting. It has inspired me, some of those photos were really moving.
Being in England, I wait my whole evening for this first Rookie post and then have to save the next two for the next day. Seriously you guys are like a drug.
Elliott Smith is pretty much my soul mate. I love his music and these pictures and Jenny and Johnny and Rodarte. I can’t even explain how much I love this magazine for featuring so many awesome people and referencing all my favorite movies and music and TV shows. Rookie is getting me through my senior year of high school which is becoming so much more exciting than I ever thought it would be!!!
Now that mural has a stencil of Elliott Smith on it :)
Wow.
Is the bright blue Fairmont wagon Jenny and Johnny’s? Yours? Just parked there?
this is really beautiful. i love los angeles. i can’t wait to go back home to this and more.
Autumn de Wilde?!?! I love her!!!!!!!!!! Gosh, she’s an amazing photographer + I love her photog advice. Good good post.
I’m so grateful for this… I just moved here, and have had a hard time wanting to be motivated to photograph (which used to be my passion) because of all the tourists taking pictures of my neighbourhood. Someday I will get past it. ( Not to mention that I sold my camera to buy a gift for my husband because I was unemployed…oh well!!)
Love this!
I live in NYC and I’m inspired to look at it differently now.
It’s always good to find a new perspective on your surroundings.
this makes me want to capture everything that interesting for me. sometimes, we have different way to explain this ‘interesting’.
All of the Loz Feliz shots are at the end of the alley by my old house, so many memories
this is very inspiring. thank you so much. and how lucky for you to have known elliot smith! your work is supremely awesome.
Autumn does an amazing job of showing what is there to be seen if you really look–at your surroundings (up, down, and sideways!)– at your memories, your obsessions– at color, shape, and unexpected juxtapositions–at the beauty in ugliness and the ugliness in beauty–at your own personal journey. And her best advice: always have your camera with you!
Love, love the photo of the wig shop!
This is stunning, I am at a complete los for words. I live in Los Angeles which is a gaping wound of opportunity for amateur photographers like myself. I’ve been dying to go to the Figure 8 mural – I quite literally worship Elliott Smith. To be any age but 16…
Tavi – I could watch an endless amount of documentaries on the subjects that I’m obsessed with, so I think I might like hearing about people’s process too (Geek like you <3).
AUTUMN DE WILDE….ON ROOKIE….this is phenomenal…..so many of my favorite people on my favorite website….difficult. to. handle. with. normalcy!
*commences breathing again*
tavi~yes this kind of post is supremely interesting, in my opinion. I really enjoy reading about other photographer’s creative processes, tips, and whatnot for ideas.
I loved the general topic of this post too! I live in a small town in Louisiana, and while it’s no LA(well technically it is an LA…..feel free to ignore my bad jokes), I love finding little unnoticed spots around town to photograph and generally sketchily hang out around.
This was a great post! The consistency of this site is utterly magnificent.
I really enjoyed this post, its so interesting looking at how memories and thoughts can be linked into photographs through that perspective. Thanks heaps for the helpful tips!I especially enjoyed the power-line/ traffic light photo and the Peter Jenson lookbook photo.
Well done Autumn!
It’s really helpful hearing some professional’s process and the way they think that made them today.
Tavi, why dont you share us yours?
that peter pan picture just dunked my head into a mysterious pool of strange life flashes and nostalgia.
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I loved this a great deal. I love finding the little things around me and taking the time to stop and look at them or photograph them. Walking around your neighborhood everyday can be something different each time if you want it to be.
It is fascinating to see what people hold unique to them and recurring elements that pop up within photos.
I tend to get this feeling that a billion people produce a billion different pictures, so what’s the point, but then I realize that just like power lines and snowflakes, pictures differ from one to another, even with the same subject.
Thank you! I’m studying photography atm and I found this really interesting and stimulating. One of the best articles I’ve read in a long time, absolutely inspiring!
I absolutely love the idea about looking for opposites. I’m not much of a photographer, but I think it’s a great rule of thumb for any art media. I feel like going outside and doing some sketching now!
(Also, I am so excited for Autumn’s book on Beck that it’s kind of insane.)
this is incredible! it’s not often that you read photography tips that are more about inspiration/location than equipment/technical skills. even more inspiring that it’s from autumn de wilde! i’ve come away from this feeling so inspired.
tavi – i’d love to see more features like this.
i wish to see more from you about photograph in los angeles street, locations , wild photography, parties ,many more.