BEVERLY HILLS

When I went out to photograph on June 2nd my primary goal was to photograph some of the damage in Beverly Hills and work my way towards LA City Hall to photograph the protests I knew were schedule for there. 

After a brief stop to photograph Westwood we headed into Beverly Hills on Wilshire. When we turned on to Santa Monica Boulevard, I discovered we were driving right into the middle of a BLM protest.  I had no idea it was happening that day, and our timing was perfect.

This protest was well structured, people were staying on the South sidewalk and Beverley Hills PD was providing traffic control so the group could march together.  Beverly Hills PD had Rodeo Drive block off so protestors could not go down the street; the famous retail stores there had been looted on May 30th.  The fact there was so much order in this march gave me the unique opportunity to photograph the entire length of the march from the passenger seat of my son’s truck.  I was able to still get close to the crowd since no cars were parked on the street while maintaining my social distance from people.  We even were able to circle the march once and find images like a pack of protestors taking a Starbucks break and some damage from the earlier looting.