Life in an Alley in Downtown L.A.

In 2014, I was photographing in the Flower District of downtown Los Angeles and came upon an alley enclosed by a fortress of buildings covered in colorful graffiti. The 10-foot Joker at the end of the alley led me down and it was there that I met Jose Hernandez, who lived there, though not like one might imagine a homeless encampment in an alley to be. I would learn over the years of dropping by to visit when shooting in the Flower District that he lived amongst a community of people who live and work much like the norm, just without a roof. People respect and like Jose and count on him for many things. Other homeless people come and go, as do the workers and business owners of the buildings that surround the alley. They all help each other out. This alley has five different ways in, like arteries to the heart of the alley, and all five of them have gates with locks. At night Jose locks himself in before sleeping under his tent-like tarp. Jose is the keeper of the alley. The guardian. The Godfather. He looks out for the business owners’ property and they in turn let him make a home for himself. He has a few plants, a flat screen TV, an alter, and a weather-beaten print of the Virgin Mary that is ajar from its frame. Over the years of my knowing him, he has had a dog, a couple of chickens, and a cat with kittens, some with tragic ends just from being on the street. Now, Jose has one domesticated-like cat (Garfield) and several other feral alley cats, as well as 12 chicks and 4 adult chickens and roosters, all hatched in an old broken-down Mercedes parked in the alley. The owner of the Mercedes allowed the chicken and her eggs in his car so that they were safe from predators. This “concrete jungle,” as Jose calls it, resembles a farm. I have been photographing Jose for six years now, but more often over the past six months after he invited me to tell his story in more depth. There is a lot to tell, starting at the age of 12 when his parents kicked him out of their small house in Mexico City. He is now 51 and has lived on the streets ever since.