I was born, raised, and lived my entire live in Los Angeles County. I have never lived outside of a ten mile radius of the house I grew up in Echo Park. Even as child, I was struck the difference between how Los Angeles appeared to be in the popular imagination, movies, TV, books and the like and how it looked to me. As I grew older this contrast grew sharper in my mind as I saw the city change with many of the more distinctive parts fanished. As I traveled to other cities, I would frequently notice overy my shoulder or out of the corner of my eye elements of these other cities that reminded me of Los Angeles, that is my Los Angeles. In my dreams I see this Los Angeles, distilled and exagerated.
I am not an engineer, or architect, or even a pontist (i.e. a “bridge geek”). This site is not dedicated to bridges as bridges in Los Angeles County, or really in any county. There are other sites dedicated to bridges as bridges, even one where I have many of my photographs (//bridgehunter.com/ca/los-angeles/).
Of course what I am is more than what I am not and this site is entirely about me. It might seem odd that someone who has no training nor particular interest in bridges should then create a site “Bridges of Los Angeles County” but only if you focus on the first part of the title and not the second. I have lived my entire life in Los Angeles County, indeed, within a fairly small area, Echo Park, East Hollywood, and San Gabriel. I was not confined to these area, I traveled about even as child through Down Town Los Angeles, Temple-Beaudry, Solano Canyon, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, Highland Park, West Lake, Glassel Park, Venice, Ocean Park, Long Beach, San Pedro, and so forth. These are among the oldest parts of Los Angeles County. I grew up saturated with a particular aesthetic constellation of houses, geography, people, rivers, and bridges.
Even as a lad, I was struck by the contrast between how Los Angeles appeared to me and how it was shown to world, it was as if there two separate and completely different Los Angeles', mine and everyone else's. Some years ago I began writing down my dreams. The vast majority were set somewhere in LAC and many featured the many very beautiful bridges in parts of LAC I grew up in. I began photographing actual locations that seemed to show up in my dreams, this quite naturally included many bridges. At first jokingly referred to my project as the "Bridges of Los Angeles County" (a very obvious play on the book and movie). However I eventually discovered that the bridges were a fascinating focal point for organizing my images of Los Angeles County. This is because the bridges seemed to be a critical part of Los Angeles, or at least my Los Angeles, that were completely ignored (at least until recently anyway) and seemed to exemplify the greatest contrast between how Los Angeles appears to me and how it appears to world. Also, from an aesthetic perspective, bridges seem a metaphor for discovery. Not just because they take us places that would be difficult to get to ordinary roads, but also because they are "transparent", one can see what is beneath them and around them. Ordinary roads cannot cross the arroyos and rivers of Los Angeles County and are also "opaque", they hide what is beneath. They sit low on the horizon and do not reveal nearly as much as the high riding bridges.
This site is what my dreams of Los Angeles look like.
So I hope that you enjoy the photographs.