Silverlake Stairs

In March of 2020, I was living in Silverlake, Los Angeles. When the world shut down that month, I began taking 2-3 hour walks around the neighborhood in order to give myself something to do and to get some exercise. Initially, I had to push myself to get out of the house and go. Gradually, I learned to enjoy the walks more and more and eventually, I grew to really look forward to them.

The goal was to discover as many of the 52 "secret" staircases as I could, allowing myself to become lost in both a literal and figurative sense. My hope was to distract myself from the chaos and get to know and appreciate the area better. I don’t know how many of the staircases I discovered, but my guess is at least 25.

I would go without earbuds because I wanted to hear the sounds around me and keep open the opportunity to say “hello”, if by chance I came across another friendly human. (This was early on, during the time when, even while wearing a mask, people would literally cross the street to avoid walking too closely to one another)

Capturing my world in monochrome became my hobby, the gritty greys mirroring our collective mood—a cocktail of confusion with a twist of trepidation.

May marks the loquat season in California. I discovered the spots where the sweetest loquats could be picked from trees that overhang the sidewalks, laden with fruit. The juice from the fruit was just enough to quench my thirst, allowing me to extend my walk before the need to head back home for water arose. As the new way of the world became more familiar, as it became the norm, I switched to taking photos in color.