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What the Water Gave Me

The Los Angeles River, as we have come to know it, is a concrete channel that connects the mountains of the San Fernando Valley to the mouth of the Pacific Ocean via Long Beach. Classified as a flood control channel, the river mainly serves to transport rainwater, snow runoff, sewage, and anything else in its path from the city to the ocean. Out of sight, out of mind.

This project began as an accident. In walking around the river during the pandemic, while everything was closed, I found a plastic toy of a couple riding a neon motorcycle. I felt a surprising kinship: perhaps it was the call of childhood, or maybe the toy awakened a subconscious desire to drive a motorcycle with a beautiful woman riding on the back. I began making return visits to the river to find what I could. There’s a stretch, around five miles long from Burbank to Dodger Stadium, where I discovered everything from cowboy boots and DVDs to house keys. Funneled through the sewer system, these objects became silent witness to the river’s passage. They had emerged as blank slates after their baptism, devoid of history or ownership until I snagged them and took them to my studio to photograph.

It became an obsession. Friends made wisecracks about my hobby. “Where’s Justin?” “Oh, probably fishing hubcaps out of the river again.” They weren’t wrong. But after a few months, having traversed the river again and again, I found I had exhausted the river of its gifts. And so for now, I wait for the rain and the runoff, hoping for another storm to flood the river with trash from the streets before I can start the series anew.

 

A heavily damaged photograph depicts a high school graduate wearing a purple cap and gown, flanked by teenage girls.

 

A dirty, heavy-duty leather glove is propped in front of a white background.

 

A pair of swimming goggles, covered in dirt, rest on a white background. Some of the dirt has spilled onto the white surface.

 

A photograph of a laptop sits underwater, in a haze of algae, upon some rocks.

 

A photograph shows trash strewn across trees and shrubbery growing out of a watery canal during the day time.

 

A photo of a rusty hammer with a wooden handle standing on its head.

 

An eroded gun casing stands on a white background.

 

A camera without its back reveals a circuit board with dirt and a small sprout growing out of it.

 

An orange pill bottle covered in dirt sits on a white surface.

 

A photo depicts an eroded plastic children’s wheely toy, of two people in red and green jumpsuits riding a yellow neon motorcycle.

 

A folded, dirty U.S. dollar sits on a white surface.

 

A dirty phone green smartphone case with a ring holder has a white flower painted around the ring.

 

A dirty digital alarm clock, with two USB ports, sits on a white surface.

 

A scratched, dirt-covered, recordable DVD has the documentary film title “The Decline of Western Civilization” and red and blue stars sharpied on it.

 

A dirty, rusty picture frame

 

A dirty purple photo album with an open clasp. On the clasp, it reads: "me & my . . ."

 

A hairbrush with cruft stuck in its bristles

 

A small troll doll holding its arms up