Bus Pass Photo Essay + Freedom School Online
It’s the environment that my desire to take pictures was born in and based on a genuine love for this city and the people who live here
Archival Recordings 20
Welcome to the 20th Archival Recordings newsletter! Before I dive into this week’s subject, I want to take a minute to thank you for riding along with this project. It’s hard to navigate the current online landscape as a photographer and your support is incredibly valuable to me. Simply said, I appreciate y’all.
Bus Pass
This week is the end of a pretty strange journey for me. In February I was involved in a car accident (not injured, thankfully) and my car was totaled. As a result I had to return to using public transportation for a few months while things were sorted out. One potential bright side of this chain of events was that it gave me the opportunity to create new work documenting mass transit in Los Angeles. Years ago when I first picked up a camera, I pointed my lens at every aspect of my daily life and photographing buses and trains was a big part of that work. Even after I purchased a car I took the train once a week to stay connected with the street level view of Los Angeles that inspires me most. When the pandemic hit, that routine was disrupted and never recovered so I was optimistic that this situation could be a blessing in disguise.
In order to get to work, I took a bus and two trains each way on my commute. The overall time to and from the office took 10-15 longer than driving, which wasn’t bad at all. The real benefit was being able to be immersed in the daily routine of the city once again. There is a lot to observe, and riding the B (Red) line train at rush hour is quite an experience. It's a side of the city that you can’t see from your car and I had almost forgotten how important this version of L.A. was to me.
It’s the environment that my desire to take pictures was born in and based on a genuine love for this city and the people who live here.
The resulting photo essay is titled, “Bus Pass 2024” , 18 photographs featuring scenes and observations from 3 months using public transit. It is also the first Archival Recordings essay that I’m publishing online, part of the new Essays section of the project. Over time I’ll be adding new sets featuring both new work and photographs from my archive.
*Click the link below to view the full photo essay:
Bus Pass 2024
Freedom School Online Summer Series
This upcoming Wednesday (5/29/2024) I'm giving an online presentation on my work as a part of a series of talks hosted by Freedom School Online, with a specific focus on documenting the urban landscape of Black neighborhoods throughout the United States. It is an online presentation, you can sign up to attend below:
Thanks for reading, stay safe, and spread the word about Archival Recordings (if you are so inclined).
-Kwasi