New Topographics (West Adams) & 2025 Zine Preview
Archival Recordings 35
Welcome to Archival Recordings 35! This newsletter will be covering some (very) recent photographs from the West Adams part of Los Angeles and features a preview of the first of 2 Archival Recordings Publications being released this year.
Recent Photography (West Adams)
It's been a little while since I've shared some of my current work but I'm still out here doing my thing. Lately that has meant exploring the West Adams area and both familiarizing myself with the landscape and searching for interesting storylines in the topography.
West Adams is a currently one of the areas where a lot of redevelopment efforts are focused, which inevitably leads to a certain amount of gentrification and displacement. In each of the photographs featured today, there is a newer apartment complex in the skyline. These juxtapositions are both numerous and informative, it is impossible to photography the neighborhood without a newer development in the picture.
In the past decade there is almost no part of the city that hasn't been touched and the outcome is almost always the same. Whatever community existed prior to the shift is ultimately priced out and replaced with people that are able to afford the newer apartments.
I've seen this moment of transition in many other neighborhoods over the years; Hollywood, Koreatown, DTLA, and many more. It's a sad and often damaging cycle that has had a profound effect on life in the city. The connection between this sort of redevelopment and the growing number of people seeking stable and permanent housing is clear, not to mention the pressure it puts on working class residents in general. The median rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in Los Angeles is already insanely high and these new units are driving a steady rise throughout the city.
"Los Angeles, Real America"
It's time for a zine preview! As longtime subscribers to Archival Recordings know, the online newsletter is an only a part of this project. The other part is are the printed zines that I design, self publish, and send out to everyone who subscribes to the Publication Tier.
*If you are a subscriber to the zine subscription from last year, you will need to sign up for the new tier in order to receive the 2025 zines (it does not auto-renew). Feel free to email me directly if you have any questions!
Here are the details for the first of two Archival Recordings zines being released this year:
The photographs will be selected from the essays that have already been published online as a part of the Los Angeles, Real America Series. There will be four essays in all, the first two are up now with two more coming soon.
The zine will ONLY be available to paid subscribers and at in-person events. So if having a copy of this zine (and another one TBD before the end of 2025) sent to you sounds interesting, sign up for the zine subscription at the link below and reserve your copy.
Archival Recordings Digital+Publication Tier
It will be a full color, 30 page zine sized at 8" X 8" and saddle stitched.
"This work is critical at this moment in history because so much effort is being put into erasing it. It's a response to the backlash against what defines being American means to me and the inability (or lack of desire) of the media to effectively push back. The creation and elevation of a new American archetype that reflects the world I (and other likeminded photographers) record is desperately needed."
-"Los Angeles, Real America".
