Photography

Angeleno

The Best of 2011

Photographs & Introduction by PAUL ZOLLO

Stephen, taken on Hollywood Boulevard.

For the past several years, I have been taking photos in and around greater and lesser Los Angeles, always with the aim of publishing a large collection of them to be called ANGELENO. Because as a photographer I have found few things on this planet as visually compelling as a human being in the process of being human, and I’ve also discovered that every kind of person in the universe of man seems to live in Los Angeles. Of course, if there is a whole other kind of person I’ve never seen, I wouldn’t know to miss it – but I have been forever exalted by the presence of such an immense array of humanity.

David Lynch, photographed at Soho House, West Hollywood, September 13, 2011.

At first the book was going to be called Caras de Los Angeles; Faces of the Angels, as these are photographs of the resident angels of the Angel City. But Angeleno sums up what the book is about because it is so specific and yet so general at once, much like Los Angeles, this city of contradictions, containing, as Ftzgerald said about Hollywood, equations too complex for the normal man to hold in his head at once.  An Angeleno, in my definition, is any person who lives here now – no Angeleno has to be native to be an Angeleno, which is part of the beauty of the thing. This is a place of inclusion, despite infamous exceptions. This is a place where the black sheep of every family can come to be accepted. And all the white sheep, too, of course. All sheep are drawn to our famous city, as are all shepherds. As Dylan wrote, “The mountains are filled with lost sheep.”  Here’s where we come to be found.

And so with gratitude forever to readers of Bluerailroad who have supported us since the start, and to those who come to enjoy these photographs, I wish you all a productive and inspirational 2012, not the ending, as so many might suggest, but the start of something big. I received an email from Yoko Ono today, and I mention it not just out of pure pride that I get emails from Yoko Ono, who I adore, but to share her message, which, like so many of the messages she’s delivered through these decades, is an affirmative one: “2012 is the beginning of the next millenium of our golden age.”

What follows are all photos I took in 2011.

My beamish boy, Joshua Zollo, in his Halloween attire for 2011, as Alex DeLarge from "A Clockwork Orange."

Day of the Dead; Dia de los Muertos, October 2011 Hollywood Forever cemetery, Hollywood.

Hugh Hefner at 86, taken at the 2011 Thalians Charity event at the Playboy Mansion.

Girl with a Tattoo on the Roof

The actor Bob Odenkirk after filming a video with The Black Keys at a used car store on Hatteras & Lankershim in North Hollywood, California.

At Philippe's in downtown Los Angeles.

The Altar of the old Church of Los Angeles at Olvera Street down in downtown town.

Morris Brickman, on a sunny morning in Hollywood. Politics were on everyone's minds, so I asked him if he liked Newt Gingrich, and he laughed as I took this.

Jack London sitting outside of the eternal Frolic Room on Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

This is Golondrina, a wonderful singer i heard on Olvera Street and photographed. When I sent her this picture, she sent me an email of poetry: "Thank you very much for photography if you received it with all my heart agradesco Happy New Year I wish your friend the swallow lomejor Oaxacan kisses."

My beamish lad Joshua Zollo posing with the surprising and beautiful religious iconography painted on the wall of Tacos el Toro quite near our Noho home.

Lucy Casado of Lucy's El Adobe in Hollywood, long one of my and millions of other Angeleno's favorite restaurant in town.

John the Baptist, homeless in Hollywood.

Mariya, from the Ukraine, on Cahuenga in Hollywood.

Airika MissLadybug, a wonderful songwriter & singer & musician & spirit & my friend.

Patrick Carney of the Black Keys, right after shooting a music video at a used car lot at Hatteras & Lankershim in Noho, California, USA.

Lost In Venice. When I asked him his name, he said, "Lost."

David Spade in the parking garage of Soho on Sunset Boulevard in West Hollywood, where he kindly let me take this.

My friend the formerly homeless Kent Willard at the LA Family Housing Shelter in North Hollywood

Kenneth Anger, legendary director and author of "Hollywood Babylon."

The Lynch Girls. These 2 introduced every track of David Lynch's new album as we, the music press, assembled to listen. And to watch these two.

Jacob, homeless in a Hollywood summer afternoon.

My friend the brilliant Jennifer Jonassen

Rock Wife Josie Stevens with Iraq War soldier just home from the war to the Playboy Mansion.

Larry Gomez, aka Wolf Boy, at the Venice Beach Freak Show under the tutelage of the great Todd Ray.

The Timelessly Charming Penny Folger

Nick Ashford, who sadly died this year, taken at the Grammy Museum in downtown L.A.

Carole Channing in Hollywood, January 13, 2012

Glen Campbell on his farewell tour at Club Nokia in downtown town, Los Angeles.

Stripes Walking

~ by bluerailroad on January 12, 2012.