My work documents all of the money-transfer businesses found on East First Street as they were open for business in the morning. Their closed facades call attention to the architectonic shapes of these buildings, adding to the photographic tradition of capturing the transformation of Los Angeles' urban landscape since the 1960s. East First Street is presented as a slide show accompanied by an audio piece- chapter nineteen of "The Grapes of Wrath" by John Steinbeck. In this chapter, the author gives a historical context on the appropriation of the land in California while describing rising discrimination against towards migrants from Oklahoma during the Great Depression.
Dee Williams traces the conditions under which the Benjamin Franklin Branch Library, funded by Andrew Carnegie, on this same street, was built, demolished, rebuilt and renamed. 15 framed color photographs from a publication commemorating the building, reproductions from the Los Angeles Times newspaper, and black and white archival photographs are exhibited. This material poses debates about the ways in which ideas of progress are celebrated or replaced.
The collaborative piece is a duo-tone printed brochure that frames the project within historical developments in Los Angeles and Mexico. The contributions of Steinbeck, Vasconcelos and Carnegie are examples of the production and support of culture. A thousand copies were available for distribution in the gallery space.