Los Angeles 1998

"Los Angeles" is a photograph by Clarence Williams. The image has a muted palette, almost sepia-toned, as though this is a memory. It brings to mind the act of looking back and looking forward. Williams doesn't shy away from the material grit of city life. Look at the way the chain-link fence dominates the foreground, its pattern both a barrier and a screen through which we view the world. The gaze of the child in the striped shirt is hidden, and she leans into this boundary. It's a powerful gesture of concealment and maybe even a metaphor for the complexities of urban existence. The refuse on the ground feels like the residue of daily life. This image recalls the work of Garry Winogrand, particularly in its candidness and its focus on the social landscape. Like Winogrand, Williams captures the beauty and the harshness that coexist in the city, inviting us to find our own story in the intersection of personal and public space.