Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin (US)

Interview

Los Angeles, California (US)

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF: WHAT IS YOUR NAME, WHERE ARE YOU FROM, WHAT DO YOU DO?

My name is Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin. I was born in Brooklyn New York but my family relocated to Los Angeles when I was 2 years old. I’m a landscape photographer documenting neighborhoods in Los Angeles.

WHAT IS YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH PHOTOGRAPHY AND HOW DID YOU GET INTO IT?

I’ve been a creative person for as long as I can remember. As a kid my mother took me to a lot of museums so I was exposed to art at an early age. When I was younger I was focused on drawing and painting, photography didn’t enter my life until much later.

When I was 19, my father passed away and left me my first serious camera (it was an Olympus Pen FT). By this time I had began experimenting with photography but it was nothing serious. That camera changed everything for me, it exposed me to photography’s true potential as a creative tool.

For the past decade or so my photography has been focused on documenting the vanishing neighborhoods of Los Angeles. In recent years the city had undergone an amazing transformation. The pace of redevelopment has changed the composition of entire neighborhoods in a very short amount of time and much of what made Los Angeles special is being lost in the process. This inspired me to introduce a documentary element to my landscapes that has come to define my photographic style.

WHAT ARE YOU CURRENTLY WORKING ON, AND—IF THERE IS—WHAT IS YOUR NEXT PROJECT OR JOURNEY?

I am working on two ongoing projects right now. The Los Angeles Recordings has been going on for about two years now. The project consists of photographs and written essays on social issues that impact LA such as homelessness and gentrification.

My other project is called True Topographics, a documentary landscape project focused specifically on Hollywood California.

THANK YOU, Kwasi.

Notes

1 North Hollywood, Los Angeles 2017. Contax T2, Kodak Portra.
2 Hollywood, Los Angeles 2017. Contax T2, Kodak Portra. 
3 Downtown Los Angeles, 2017. Olympus Stylus Infinity, Agfa Vista Plus. 
4 Downtown Los Angeles, 2017. Olympus Stylus Infinity, Agfa Vista Plus. 
5 Chinatown, Los Angeles 2017. Fujifilm X70. 
6 Chinatown, Los Angeles 2017. Fujifilm X70. 
7 North Hollywood, Los Angeles 2017. Contax T2, Agfa Vista Plus. 
8 Chinatown, Los Angeles 2017. Contax T2, Agfa Vista Plus. 
9 Hollywood, Los Angeles 2017. Fujifilm X70. 
10 Hollywood, Los Angeles 2017. Fuji GA645, Fuji Acros. 
11 Van Nuys, Los Angeles 2017. Fujifilm X70. 
12 Koreatown, Los Angeles 2017. Fujifilm X70. 
13 Chinatown, Los Angeles 2017. Fujifilm X70. 
14 Hollywood, Los Angeles 2017. Fujifilm X70.