Hollywood Boulevard

Recently, Ashley has been shooting a number of lifestyle commissions and had made a conscious effort a while back to counterbalance that with work that is more editorial and documentary in feel. Consequently, he picked up clients like Loake Shoes, Fuller’s Brewery and Sipsmith Gin to shoot for – and started to shoot other documentary projects for his portfolio, one of which is ‘Hollywood Boulevard’.

Ashley said, “I was visiting Los Angeles regularly with work and decided to shoot around Hollywood Boulevard in my downtime. As a location it was very accessible as I always stay in motels on Hollywood Boulevard or the surrounding streets. It’s slightly seedy but symbolises so much of the myth of Hollywood and there’s always something interesting going on. The characters you see there are fantastic, as are the graphics and the general ambience.”

These pictures are from several visits over a couple of years and, despite Los Angeles being the place of dreams – and of monumental success for a chosen few, there is a kind of sadness that lingers over the area, that shows itself through the types of characters you see, the buildings and the signage. It is almost an emptiness, where the dream has turned sour and life seems rather hollow as a result.

Interestingly, the one guy who seemed content with his lot was the Jimi Hendrix lookalike. He seemed happy enough to be earning some cash, emulating his idol and I have to say, he was a pretty good player too!