This week, my social media has been flooded with photos from one of the coolest art-related events I've seen in a while. Scheduled in conjunction with Art Week here in Los Angeles, one of my all time favorite street artists, Barry McGee (a.k.a. Twist) and friends took over an abandoned 99 Cents store in Miracle Mile and turned it into an interactive art gallery.

It is a pretty amazing site to see.

All of the images that I have come across from the event are (rightfully so) focused on the amazing art that fills the aisles of this dilapidated store and the interior in general. As a documentary landscape photographer, how it all looked in context with the surrounding neighborhood were of the greatest interest to me. This stretch of Wilshire is a study in contrast, with the cutting edge architectural structures of Museum Row to the east of Fairfax Blvd. directly across from what is almost an entire block of shuttered businesses immediately to the west (where the former 99 Cents Store is located).

That dichotomy is in itself a powerful statement on not only the times we are living in but the city of Los Angeles itself.

I can't help but wonder how many of the people taking in the show would've shopped at the store.