The Echo Park Project
During the global pandemic the houseless encampment at Echo Park Lake—located at the center of Los Angeles—ballooned to over 200 residents who suffered the immediate fall-back from the economic downturn experienced by the city’s most vulnerable communities. Tensions between the park’s new residents and their affluent neighbors grew quickly over the space’s intended use. On March 26th, 2021, the City of Los Angeles moved swiftly to evict the houseless from the park’s premise, cynically citing the need for renovations of the already recently renovated park, and quickly erecting a fence around the park, rendering it inaccessible to all. Using a camera mounted on a car, I documented the perimeter of the closed off park in an attempt to make visible and present the frustrating lack of access and the role invisibility plays to silence and erase marginalized communities.
The resulting work is a single continuous photograph that encircles the 2 kilometers of the park.
2021
During the global pandemic the houseless encampment at Echo Park Lake—located at the center of Los Angeles—ballooned to over 200 residents who suffered the immediate fall-back from the economic downturn experienced by the city’s most vulnerable communities. Tensions between the park’s new residents and their affluent neighbors grew quickly over the space’s intended use. On March 26th, 2021, the City of Los Angeles moved swiftly to evict the houseless from the park’s premise, cynically citing the need for renovations of the already recently renovated park, and quickly erecting a fence around the park, rendering it inaccessible to all. Using a camera mounted on a car, I documented the perimeter of the closed off park in an attempt to make visible and present the frustrating lack of access and the role invisibility plays to silence and erase marginalized communities.
The resulting work is a single continuous photograph that encircles the 2 kilometers of the park.
2021