Santa Monica, CA/Do you believe in God and if so, how do you know?

© Jasmin Chang 2010

Answer: (right) I’m probably the least religious guy you’ve ever met.  
(left) No you’re not. 
(right) Why do you say that? 
(left) Because I’m even less religious. I don’t know if God exists or not. I don’t really think about it.
(right) Do you eat matza balls?
(left) Well it’s hard to kill off those matzo balls. laughs. Every society since the dawn of man has had gods. Some of them plural. Lesser animals we don’t think have gods because they don’t have the imagination we have. So we can create anything we want in our imaginations but as far as a physical God that watches over us? No, he doesn’t exist.

Question: Will the universe continue to expand?

Los Angeles, CA (Silverlake)/ Are you interested in tracing your roots via the internet?

My mom visited me a few weeks ago and I spent a day showing her around LA. Even though I grew up in southern California and she had lived here for 20 years before moving to Illinois, we've never really spent time together in the city. It was super nice being able to drive her around and show her where I've been spending my time for the past ten-ish months since I've been living in LA.

At the top of my places to bring visitors is Barnsdall Art Park at Hollywood and Vermont. Hands down, the BEST place to take a nap on a grassy lawn while taking in the downtown scenery and the Hollywood sign.

After that, we went to Silverlake, where we discovered Spice Station, met the owners and bought German Chocolate Cake Tea and volcano ash salt!



© Jasmin Chang 2010

Answer: I'm not interested in that simply because I already know my roots. My uncle gave my parents a gift that traced our family roots, so I know that history. It would have interested me though. My family is Italian, first generation Italian. They moved from Italy to Montreal, my dad in '54 and my mom in '59.

Question: Do you believe in God and if so, how do you know?

Who says digital is the way of the future?

I don't like doing this, but I'm breaking the pattern to make a little announcement...somewhat pertaining to this project, definitely pertaining to me as a photographer.

So, I've decided to create a little challenge for myself and for the next 6 months, I am putting down my digital camera and shooting film only. Last week, I went to an awesome lecture with a panel of PDN's 30 in 2010 photographers and someone mentioned that Art Center's photo students can only take 4x5 film photos (as opposed to digital photos) their first two years there to make them focus and to be more selective as they are taking each photo. I don't know if that is still the case, but that certainly got me thinking...

I'm at a place where I love the idea of this project, I love the people I'm meeting and the conversations I'm having, but I want to focus more on the photos themselves. After all, that's one of the biggest reasons I began this project is to work on my photography. I think shooting only film will be really good in pushing me harder in this direction. No more taking lots of haphazard photos to find one good shot...I'm gonna channel lots more thought into each time I click that button to take a photo.

So what does that mean in terms of this project? I'm definitely going to continue walking the talk, but the photos will be updated more slowly because I'll need to finish the roll of film and then develop it before I can put it up. But the really scary thing for me is that I can't be certain that I've got a photo that works before I finish talking to each person. There will be a chance that I won't get a photo because I screwed up the shot or something happens to the film and I wouldn't know that until I get the film back, when it's too late to track down the person and retake their portrait. Then that portrait would be forever lost...and I think that would break my heart. It happened once already. I did the interview, busted out my digital camera only to realize that I didn't have a memory card in it. Luckily, I had a disposable camera in my purse. But unluckily, I purchased that disposable camera for 99 cents from the thrift store and basically, her photo came out as a giant black blob.  These things happen though, right? I'm keeping my fingers crossed that these fiascos will be kept to a minimum.

Wish me luck! I'll see you in October, digital camera!

Los Angeles, CA (Playa del Rey)/Where do you come from?

May has been a busy month with lots of travelling, which I'm quite happy about. I'll tell you more about about where I've been through the next few posts. However, travelling plus waiting to finish a roll of film and then develop it has put a bit of a lag in posting the walking talk, so sorry about that!

Back at my favorite neighborhood grocery store, I met this couple when they recommended a new type of orange with wrinkly, bumpy, bulging skin.  I can't remember what it was called but the woman I photographed said it was the sweetest, most delicious orange she ever ate. I bought one and indeed...yum!


© Jasmin Chang 2010

Answer: Would you believe that we are both native Californians? We were both born less than ten miles from here. I was born in San Pedro and he was born in west LA.
 
I ask how LA has changed since they were young.

The largest difference I can think of is, for instance, I had a friend who lived on a street with three single family dwellings on one street. When they decided to sell, they all decided to sell to a contractor and it went from three families to 36 condominiums. You multiply that by many many many times and that's what happened to west LA. That's the reason for all the traffic!

Question: Are you interested in tracing your roots via the internet?

Los Angeles, CA (Echo Park)/What makes you interesting?

Here's my first film post!

One of my favorite things to do after my Friday internship is to stop by the farmer's market and as I was walking there from my car, this sad palm tree caught my attention. I don't know what happened to it, but it's not surprising with the crazy wind we've had. You'd think I was back in Chicago! Anyways, I was taking a photo of the scene when a man stepped into my frame and asked me to take a photo of him. That's never happened, but how perfect for this project and how awesome is that?! I love taking photos of people and I didn't even have to ask, he just came to me!

© Jasmin Chang 2010

© Jasmin Chang 2010

© Jasmin Chang 2010

Answer: Shrugs and shakes his head. Nothing. No, I have no idea. For me, what's interesting is the weather. I like the weather when it is raining. I wish it would rain more. We need the water, no? 



Question: Where do you come from? 

Venice, CA/What kind of food do you love the most?

I was driving home from work, along my usual route through a Venice neighborhood, when I turned the corner to see that these two guys had set up an outdoor studio where they were hanging out and spray painting a canvas. 


© Jasmin Chang 2010
 
Answer: (left) Baked ziti. It's the worst. It's criminal. You put some sausage in... then you put it back in the oven...then there's all this cheese everywhere. It's sooo good.
(right) Eggplant parm. That's what I grew up eating. My grandma's eggplant parm.

Question: What makes you interesting?