Bay City; Photographs from the Santa Monica Pier

The Santa Monica Pier is one of the last remaining pleasure piers along the California coast. Initially, I was attracted to its historical presence; the furthest reach of the urge to go west. While searching for the essence of the place, I quickly began to love its social aspects, and couldn't help but incorporate people into the scene. Rather than dwell on the pier as a historical artifact, the project focused on the street life; a gathering place that should be festive, yet would appear sad at the same time. Although people go there to have fun, there is often a sense of despair amongst the crowd. Previously, when photographing the urban landscape, I always made the point of physically excluding people, but not their presence upon the environment. In this series, my goal is to see people in the context of the larger social landscape, not necessarily as individual portraits. By being subjective, and looking for the mythic possibilities in the ordinary, I hope to transcend the objective documentary record; to create a portrait of the imagination. I call this series Bay City after Raymond Chandler’s pseudonym for Santa Monica in his Phillip Marlowe novels. This project was shot with a Diana, an inexpensive plastic-lensed camera that was once sold in toy stores. Using the Diana camera enables one to be anonymous; not looking like a photographer, you can be open about your activities, and yet be discrete. The Diana also allows one to shoot in a loose, intuitive manner. Free from worrying about technical matters, I capture my images by feel, fully aware of the environment, subconsciously discovering the poetry of the mundane.