Los Angeles Recordings 03

Recent Photographs

This is my favorite time of the year. When Daylight Savings Time begins in Los Angeles, the light changes in a way that's immediately noticeable. Winter in L.A. is underappreciated because of the lack of an obvious weather change (it still regularly tops 75 degrees) but the sun being lower in the sky just hits different.

This week I've returned to shooting with my Ricoh GR3x, a member of the legendary Ricoh GR Digital series but with a 26mm (40 mm equivalent) lens. Aside from 28mm, 40mm is my favorite focal length for street/urban landscape work. Just wider than normal view but with minimal distortion, it was the first lens I had when I started out and I never turned back.

I think about how Los Angeles is portrayed a lot. For the most part, they way it is viewed from the outside is wrong. The city that exists in popular culture is a myth based on the overrepresentation of some aspects at the expense of others. A lot of the nuance can be explored in the sprawling, nondescript expanse that connects one part of the city to the next. Careful observation can uncover a great deal about how things really work in the city of angels.

Nontext

Process notes and observations of a working class creative.

I've been creating a lot of collage work this year. The process has emerged as the perfect medium for me to fuse my abstract illustrations with my photographic process, leveraging my skillset in both mediums in interesting ways. This week I created this piece titled "Therapeutic (Texture)". The images that make up the collage are from a set of wall textures I shot almost ten years ago, mostly peeling paint and the remains of wheat paste posters I came across.

Updates

• I was the subject of a short documentary on my fathers camera for Amica Life insurance which debuted last month. You can view my segment here: https://amicawhatyouleavebehind.com/#theCamera
• In August, I completed a digital artists residency with Dunedin Fine Art Center called "Nomandency". I produced a series of illustrations called "Playground", you can find the work and a short interview here: https://nomadency.art/exhibits/play/kwasi-boyd-bouldin-playground/
• My newest project, “The Small Outside“, continues over on Instagram. I’ve been photographing the green spaces around Los Angeles and how nature can be found throughout the urban environment using landscape and macro photography. Follow along over at: https://instagram.com/thesmalloutside
• I'm increasing the frequency of this newsletter to twice a week! I'm adding a second format that focuses on one picture from my archive and goes into detail about context, process, and my approach to creating it. Look for it to drop over the weekend.

Online Store

• Secret Schematic is a collection of digital and hand drawn images I created over the past year. Published this summer, it's one of the zines I'm most proud of publishing under Nonstndrd Creative. You can purchase a copy at my online shop here: https://nonstndrd.myshopify.com/products/secret-schematic-art-zine

This concludes this installment of Los Angeles Recordings by Nonstndrd Creative. I really appreciate all of you early adopters sticking with me as the format of this project evolves. Please help me spread the word and stay safe out there!
-Kwasi