About
Welcome to Archival Recordings by Kwasi Boyd-Bouldin
First, a little bit about myself. My family moved to Los Angeles when I was 2 years old, arriving by train at the iconic Union Station in March of 1980. From that point, the city of L.A. has been my home. I’ve lived in several parts of the city, from our first house near the corner of Slauson and Van Ness in South Los Angeles to Hollywood, Mid-City, and finally Koreatown. Anyone who is familiar with the areas I listed can tell you how different they all are from one another. That range of experiences has given me a perspective on the city that is influenced by the neighborhoods I inhabited and the time period that I grew up in. Through my words and photography, I create photo essays that document the rapidly changing topography in one of the world’s great cities.
I’ve been fortunate enough to have received a great deal of recognition for my work over the years, starting with being one of Time Magazine’s 12 African American Photographers to Follow in 2017. Later in the same year I was featured on the iconic New York Times Lens Blog and I was accepted into the Times Portfolio Review the following spring. Since then I have shot assignments for many publications and was one of 2 inaugural Creators in Residence for the Los Angeles Public Library in 2022. In short, it’s been an incredible run and I’m excited about the next stage of my creative journey.
Archival Recordings is an ongoing photography project where I share work from my archive going back over 15 years along with some of my more recent work. It is the culmination of almost two decades of documentary photography, expressed through essays exploring the past, present, and future of daily life in the City of Angels and beyond. My perspective is grounded in my experiences running the streets of Los Angeles in my youth and a deep appreciation of the often overlooked daily rhythms of everyday life. Every two weeks a new Archival Recordings post and newsletter are released focusing on a different aspect of urban life in the underrepresented neighborhoods and areas I focus on. And every 3 months, I release a new Archival Recordings Zine, printed in Hollywood by Nonstop Printing and sent directly to you automatically if you subscribe to the paid tier of this site.
Links & Social Media
About the Photographer
Structure & Hue (Online Store)
Instagram