Cameraman.
This is the original unedited version of a text I wrote for The Fader magazine about Robert Yager's gang photographs. “Robert Yager, The Playboys,” The Fader, the photography issue, no 30, May/June, New York, 2005, p. 123.
In 1847 Californios and other northern Mexicans had their land and property stolen by force. They formed gangs of bandits to defend themselves and to rob the invaders. This was the case of Joaquín Murrieta also known as “El Patrio.” Some see him as a Robin Hood while others consider him a criminal. Captain Harry Love, a former Texas Ranger was hired to kill the famous “bandido.” He traded the pickled heads of a couple of Mexicans for a $5000 reward but apparently he got the wrong ones.
During the Second World War uniformed sailors attacked the barrios of Los Angeles assaulting young Mexican “pachucos” and ripping their colorful zoot suits. The L.A.P.D. arrived to arrest the minority victims of the attack. The zoot suit was originally an African American youth fashion connected to jazz counterculture but marginalized Mexican American kids identified with it and made it theirs. The oversized suit was both an outrageous style and a statement of defiance. It was a form of self-expression that placed them in the public eye with a heavy price. Encouraged by sensationalistic news reports and the police department, a lot of people believed Mexican American youth were predisposed to criminality. With their particular dress code, “caló” (slang) and style, the “pachucos” were the predecessors of today’s “cholos.”
Easy access to guns and drugs have created a competitive market and a level of self destructive violence that derailed the original purpose of the gangs which was to defend the barrio. Nevertheless the overtly aesthetic “vida loca” (crazy life) and the power it represents effectively seduces the marginalized youth from their expected dead end jobs at the command of others. Quite often it seduces Hollywood, the media and an audience hungry for the spectacle of violence too.
The early nineties were tough times for the city. Police brutality and racial profiling lead to riots and once again the barrios and the hoods where left unprotected. Robert Yager had come from London via Mexico City to Los Angeles. Wanting to be a photojournalist he decided to document the closest war he had available. He got into his graffiti spray painted 1976 Chevy Impala and drove to the Pico Union barrio. His experience in Latin America and his Spanish helped him to develop the trust and a relationship with the local gang “The Playboys.” Since then he embarked on an odyssey where he has photographed them getting and removing tattoos, having sex, getting married, divorced and remarried, getting addictions and fighting them, jumping into the gang and leaving it to join the army, etc. In other words he has the biggest visual record ever produced on how they live, grow and how they die. His images have become an epical narrative about life in a West that is still very wild. He became their friend and personal photographer. He became known as “Cameraman.”
He has learned that the seduction of these images comes with all sorts of problems. In 1995 he was taking photos of the homies at a party when the Rampart Crash Unit broke in. The cops started beating them and when they noticed Robert photographing they pushed him and hit him. They grabbed his camera and broke it. They took out the film and exposed it. They took him into a patrol and accused him of assaulting an officer. He lost his press pass. He went to court and eventually recovered it once they dropped the charges. Seven cops lied arguing that the camera opened accidentally. Once the film was developed it was all exposed proving it was all taken out. A couple of years later the same Rampart Crash Unit was involved in a scandal over allegations of abuse and corruption.
These images have bothered conservatives that still get surprised of a supposed Latino “invasion” that actually precedes the creation of the United States and Anglo settlements in the American continent. They see them as proof of the savagery of the other. The truth is that the gangs are not coming to the U.S. but actually expanding from here to Latin America. They have also bothered liberals that see them as an exploitative stereotypical construction and would rather see another more positive and sanitized construction devoid of violence. They have bothered Anglos and Latinos alike. These images happened to be the most complete and powerful essay of this particular American dream gone amok. A reality that perhaps seen in its entirety might be understood better.
In 1847 Californios and other northern Mexicans had their land and property stolen by force. They formed gangs of bandits to defend themselves and to rob the invaders. This was the case of Joaquín Murrieta also known as “El Patrio.” Some see him as a Robin Hood while others consider him a criminal. Captain Harry Love, a former Texas Ranger was hired to kill the famous “bandido.” He traded the pickled heads of a couple of Mexicans for a $5000 reward but apparently he got the wrong ones.
During the Second World War uniformed sailors attacked the barrios of Los Angeles assaulting young Mexican “pachucos” and ripping their colorful zoot suits. The L.A.P.D. arrived to arrest the minority victims of the attack. The zoot suit was originally an African American youth fashion connected to jazz counterculture but marginalized Mexican American kids identified with it and made it theirs. The oversized suit was both an outrageous style and a statement of defiance. It was a form of self-expression that placed them in the public eye with a heavy price. Encouraged by sensationalistic news reports and the police department, a lot of people believed Mexican American youth were predisposed to criminality. With their particular dress code, “caló” (slang) and style, the “pachucos” were the predecessors of today’s “cholos.”
Easy access to guns and drugs have created a competitive market and a level of self destructive violence that derailed the original purpose of the gangs which was to defend the barrio. Nevertheless the overtly aesthetic “vida loca” (crazy life) and the power it represents effectively seduces the marginalized youth from their expected dead end jobs at the command of others. Quite often it seduces Hollywood, the media and an audience hungry for the spectacle of violence too.
The early nineties were tough times for the city. Police brutality and racial profiling lead to riots and once again the barrios and the hoods where left unprotected. Robert Yager had come from London via Mexico City to Los Angeles. Wanting to be a photojournalist he decided to document the closest war he had available. He got into his graffiti spray painted 1976 Chevy Impala and drove to the Pico Union barrio. His experience in Latin America and his Spanish helped him to develop the trust and a relationship with the local gang “The Playboys.” Since then he embarked on an odyssey where he has photographed them getting and removing tattoos, having sex, getting married, divorced and remarried, getting addictions and fighting them, jumping into the gang and leaving it to join the army, etc. In other words he has the biggest visual record ever produced on how they live, grow and how they die. His images have become an epical narrative about life in a West that is still very wild. He became their friend and personal photographer. He became known as “Cameraman.”
He has learned that the seduction of these images comes with all sorts of problems. In 1995 he was taking photos of the homies at a party when the Rampart Crash Unit broke in. The cops started beating them and when they noticed Robert photographing they pushed him and hit him. They grabbed his camera and broke it. They took out the film and exposed it. They took him into a patrol and accused him of assaulting an officer. He lost his press pass. He went to court and eventually recovered it once they dropped the charges. Seven cops lied arguing that the camera opened accidentally. Once the film was developed it was all exposed proving it was all taken out. A couple of years later the same Rampart Crash Unit was involved in a scandal over allegations of abuse and corruption.
These images have bothered conservatives that still get surprised of a supposed Latino “invasion” that actually precedes the creation of the United States and Anglo settlements in the American continent. They see them as proof of the savagery of the other. The truth is that the gangs are not coming to the U.S. but actually expanding from here to Latin America. They have also bothered liberals that see them as an exploitative stereotypical construction and would rather see another more positive and sanitized construction devoid of violence. They have bothered Anglos and Latinos alike. These images happened to be the most complete and powerful essay of this particular American dream gone amok. A reality that perhaps seen in its entirety might be understood better.
Labels: cholos, Los Angeles, Photography, Published Texts, Robert Yager
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