Street photographer

I never heard of Anthony Hernandez before seeeing the Anonymes exhibition at Le Bal last November, and I was struck by his extraordinary black and white views of Los Angeles in the 70's (read a text by Doug Rickard and also an interesting review of the work by Jeff Ladd), images so rich that it feels like they condense many photographs and many photographic genres in themselves. In each of those photos I thoguht that I could see some of the best that urban landscape, street and portrait photography could offer at the same time, as if I could create my own personal photographs by moving my eyes across the space of Hernandez plates, framing and reframing their surface inside my mind.

Later I discovered more of his work, and while he also made some more traditional b&w street photography in the style of Garry Winogrand and many others, what I found excellent was his series of passers-by in Beverly Hills, where a sense of immediacy and of fakery collide in the soft colours of life in the Platinum Triangle.



Through the years is work took further new directions, like the colour series Landscape for the Homeless, which adds a new chapter to our photographic journey through nomadic life, shelters and temporary houses.



All images © Anthony Hernandez