Walking the Broadway at Los Angeles downtown turns into an investigation about the ruins of the 20th century entertainment industry. Footprints of movie palaces still remain visible. Their structures have been reappropriated though. Immigrant communities have reclaimed most of these architectural spaces and have redesigned them, adapting them to their informal commerce practices. Former cinema, nickelodeon, and vaudeville signage announces nowadays digital cameras, gold, religions, jewelry, sneakers, smartphones, and car stereos. Some of the details of the floors and the ceilings remain there as a testimony of their glory. Stages and sitting rooms have been transformed into warehouses that remain dark, cluttered with boxes and metallic shelves. Former entrances and reception halls now are display windows for commodity goods made in China, Mexico, and Taiwan. Layers of dust and pollution grow on the surfaces, and try to cover some visible cracks. The giant infrastructure of the glorious entertainment industry is now transformed by the everyday practices of the transitory inhabitants and dwellers of an international megapolis. Here is a collection of images I took during a recent walk through the Broadway. The photographs speak by themselves and are a homage to the jewels of architecture and media history that are still standing. A visual archeology of the public facades of the spaces where the movie audiences met at the beginning and first half of the 20th century.
