Landscapes for the Homeless

After two years of study at East Los Angeles College and two years of service in the U.S. Army as a medic in the Vietnam War, Hernandez took up photography in earnest around 1970. He walked the streets of his native Los Angeles observing its inhabitants. To work quickly and intuitively, he would pre-focus the camera and wait for subjects to enter the focus zone, briefly bringing the camera close to the eye as he passed them. Projects such as Landscapes for the Homeless (1988-91), Waiting for Los Angeles (1996-98), and Everything (The Los Angeles River Basin) (2003-4) document how human presence in the city has been reduced to the traces and debris left by destructive social forces.Over the past twenty years, Anthony Hernandez has become known as a creator of a unique blend of social commentary, urban documentary, and landscape photography. This is a book of portraits, not of people, but of places. Homeless habitats in Los Angeles. Hernandez draws a vivid portrait of American social irresponsibility in the volatile setting of an urban wasteland.