Quoted By:
SH: The book and exhibition show some shifts in your work—from photographing people to the landscape, and a big shift in the ‘80s from black and white to color, which you’ve used consistently ever since. And the camera goes from 35mm to larger formats. Even the point of view itself and where the camera is pointed changes. We see one such shift in your bookWaiting for Los Angeles (Nazraeli Press, 2002).
AH:I should mention that in 1991 my wife and I left LA to live in Idaho for a while. When I came back after ten months, I saw Los Angeles with fresh eyes. The pictures I call “Waiting in Line”come from an experience I had when my car broke down. While it was being fixed, I had to walk. So, coming up Beverly Boulevard, near where I live, there happened to be a social service office with a line of people around it. I’d noticed them before, but I’d never noticed what they were looking at as they stood there waiting. I realized there was this whole tile façade around the building. I tried to photograph it from their point of view as the line moves. Then I started going to other welfare offices all over LA, creating this body of work. It’s all square format, on a tripod, and very deliberate.