WEBVTT #Elemental Media Engine(TM) 2.17.1.0 00:00:06.030 --> 00:00:07.140 - My name is Francine Orr. 00:00:07.140 --> 00:00:08.190 - My name is Marcus Yam. 00:00:08.190 --> 00:00:09.510 - My name is Robert Gauthier. 00:00:09.510 --> 00:00:10.860 - My name is Christina House. 00:00:10.860 --> 00:00:12.069 - My name is Luis Sinco. 00:00:12.069 --> 00:00:13.650 - My name is Jason Armand. 00:00:13.650 --> 00:00:17.407 I'm a staff photojournalist here at the L.A. Times. 00:00:17.407 --> 00:00:20.574 (solemn gentle music) 00:00:27.030 --> 00:00:30.797 The initial goal of the Behold project was to provide 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:37.640 a voice for Black Los Angeles to share, you know, 00:00:38.670 --> 00:00:42.660 their thoughts, their feelings, you know, 00:00:42.660 --> 00:00:45.690 about what it is to be Black in Los Angeles. 00:00:45.690 --> 00:00:50.690 And we wanted to do that primarily with portraits 00:00:51.930 --> 00:00:56.930 and just showing the wide range of people in L.A. 00:00:57.210 --> 00:01:00.390 and who they are, and the diversity in the community. 00:01:00.390 --> 00:01:01.890 Each person is different. 00:01:01.890 --> 00:01:04.620 They come from a different background. 00:01:04.620 --> 00:01:08.940 And so I try to tap into like who that person is, 00:01:08.940 --> 00:01:13.440 their personality, and kind of like let that shine through. 00:01:13.440 --> 00:01:15.990 - This organization named Arts Up L.A., 00:01:15.990 --> 00:01:18.986 they offer different programs 00:01:18.986 --> 00:01:23.986 for the differently abled community in Los Angeles. 00:01:25.710 --> 00:01:27.010 And one of 'em, one of these groups 00:01:27.010 --> 00:01:32.010 is a group of actors who are unsighted 00:01:32.940 --> 00:01:35.730 and they are incredible. 00:01:35.730 --> 00:01:38.130 My initial idea was to treat them like 00:01:38.130 --> 00:01:42.600 they were Hollywood stars from the '40s and the '30s. 00:01:42.600 --> 00:01:43.950 The last thing you would think about 00:01:43.950 --> 00:01:45.961 was that they were sightless, right? 00:01:45.961 --> 00:01:50.961 And that these are people with aspirations, 00:01:52.380 --> 00:01:55.470 this person aspires, this person has it. 00:01:55.470 --> 00:01:57.570 You know, they deserve to be treated 00:01:57.570 --> 00:01:59.220 like a Hollywood movie star. 00:01:59.220 --> 00:02:02.010 So that's where I came from and that's how 00:02:02.010 --> 00:02:03.030 it sort of evolved. 00:02:03.030 --> 00:02:06.930 And as we were shooting, they all embraced that idea 00:02:06.930 --> 00:02:08.190 like this is your moment. 00:02:08.190 --> 00:02:10.440 Let's really see what we can find. 00:02:10.440 --> 00:02:14.670 - I know just from working that we've experienced 00:02:14.670 --> 00:02:19.670 a great big long drought, and I've always been aware 00:02:20.190 --> 00:02:23.730 that the Colorado River was one of our main sources of water 00:02:23.730 --> 00:02:25.113 in Southern California. 00:02:25.950 --> 00:02:30.950 So in 2021, I just embarked on a road trip to see 00:02:32.921 --> 00:02:37.921 what the river was, and try to convey this feeling 00:02:38.190 --> 00:02:43.190 that it's a natural thing, and we depend on it very much. 00:02:44.520 --> 00:02:49.520 The growth around the river, it's tremendous 00:02:49.860 --> 00:02:53.670 and I don't know whether it's gonna stop soon. 00:02:53.670 --> 00:02:57.450 Just a couple of months ago, I went to Phoenix 00:02:57.450 --> 00:03:02.250 and in the northern area of Phoenix, 00:03:02.250 --> 00:03:07.250 there is a road that just was supposed to be a main highway 00:03:07.620 --> 00:03:11.850 for a hundred thousand new homes. 00:03:11.850 --> 00:03:16.850 And that project is on hold because they don't have 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:20.550 the water supplies guaranteed. 00:03:20.550 --> 00:03:24.300 I discovered that people are still looking 00:03:24.300 --> 00:03:27.090 for the American dream, and that American dream 00:03:27.090 --> 00:03:29.703 is closely tied to water. 00:03:31.860 --> 00:03:36.860 And maybe in our pursuit of it, we're going places 00:03:37.320 --> 00:03:41.790 where the American dream is unsustainable. 00:03:41.790 --> 00:03:44.040 - So this year, the COVID numbers 00:03:44.040 --> 00:03:45.930 have been down a little bit 00:03:45.930 --> 00:03:48.180 relative to the first part of the pandemic. 00:03:48.180 --> 00:03:50.760 So I've only worked inside of three hospitals 00:03:50.760 --> 00:03:51.990 covering COVID this year. 00:03:51.990 --> 00:03:55.620 Chaplain Kevin is a hospital chaplain in Mission Hills, 00:03:55.620 --> 00:03:57.120 and he's somebody that I spent 00:03:57.120 --> 00:03:59.970 a great deal of time following. 00:03:59.970 --> 00:04:03.510 He is not certainly the only hospital chaplain 00:04:03.510 --> 00:04:07.650 that I came across, but he gave me incredible access. 00:04:07.650 --> 00:04:10.290 He introduced me to families, to patients, 00:04:10.290 --> 00:04:12.870 the challenges were many just like, you know, 00:04:12.870 --> 00:04:13.703 the medical staff. 00:04:13.703 --> 00:04:16.200 My challenges were minimal compared 00:04:16.200 --> 00:04:19.170 to the challenges of the patients, the families, 00:04:19.170 --> 00:04:21.300 the medical workers, the hospital. 00:04:21.300 --> 00:04:25.770 So my small exposure in these hospitals 00:04:25.770 --> 00:04:29.730 was nothing equal to what they were going through. 00:04:29.730 --> 00:04:32.833 One of the greatest things that I was able to do, 00:04:32.833 --> 00:04:34.320 one of the greatest gifts 00:04:34.320 --> 00:04:37.740 was I was able to thank the patients in the moment 00:04:37.740 --> 00:04:39.720 for allowing me to document them. 00:04:39.720 --> 00:04:41.070 And to thank the medical staff 00:04:41.070 --> 00:04:43.020 for allowing me to witness history 00:04:43.020 --> 00:04:46.710 for the full point of educating the public 00:04:46.710 --> 00:04:49.950 on what it was like to work in the hospitals. 00:04:49.950 --> 00:04:53.760 - Hollywood's Finest is a story about a young woman 00:04:53.760 --> 00:04:58.760 who was living in a tent in Hollywood and she was pregnant, 00:04:59.880 --> 00:05:03.690 and we followed her story over the course 00:05:03.690 --> 00:05:08.690 of nearly four years, and we saw a lot of joy 00:05:09.000 --> 00:05:10.320 and a lot of heartbreak. 00:05:10.320 --> 00:05:15.320 It was important for me to show the joyous side 00:05:16.110 --> 00:05:19.950 of the story too because there was a lot of pain. 00:05:19.950 --> 00:05:24.300 But there were many moments where I documented Mackenzie 00:05:24.300 --> 00:05:26.853 in pure joy and admiration of her daughter. 00:05:28.230 --> 00:05:30.960 So showing that love was really important for that 00:05:30.960 --> 00:05:32.400 to come through to the reader 00:05:32.400 --> 00:05:34.320 because she very much loved her daughter. 00:05:34.320 --> 00:05:37.470 I thought about it a lot one day her daughter 00:05:37.470 --> 00:05:42.470 who is currently in foster care may wanna seek out 00:05:42.630 --> 00:05:47.630 who her birth parents were, and she may see this someday. 00:05:47.670 --> 00:05:49.920 And it was important for me 00:05:49.920 --> 00:05:53.040 to have images attached to this story 00:05:53.040 --> 00:05:57.540 that were proof that her mother did love her. 00:05:57.540 --> 00:05:59.910 - One of the most noteworthy pictures 00:05:59.910 --> 00:06:03.510 that I remember making from Afghanistan 00:06:03.510 --> 00:06:07.343 was the image outside of Kabul airport. 00:06:07.343 --> 00:06:11.430 And in one of those instances while I was, 00:06:11.430 --> 00:06:13.350 you know, interviewing a group of students 00:06:13.350 --> 00:06:17.010 from Herat western Afghanistan who had found themselves 00:06:17.010 --> 00:06:19.230 in Kabul trying to get on this evacuation flight 00:06:19.230 --> 00:06:22.680 was that I heard a rattle of gunfire. 00:06:22.680 --> 00:06:24.660 I looked across the street 00:06:24.660 --> 00:06:28.830 and I could see a woman that was gunned down 00:06:28.830 --> 00:06:31.260 and she was covered in blood. 00:06:31.260 --> 00:06:35.700 And, you know, and men were dragging her children. 00:06:35.700 --> 00:06:38.070 One of them completely one of her kids 00:06:38.070 --> 00:06:40.440 were covered in blood and unconscious, 00:06:40.440 --> 00:06:43.470 and dragging her and her other child follow along. 00:06:43.470 --> 00:06:46.710 And I met them kinda in between 00:06:46.710 --> 00:06:49.500 and in a moment of frenzy, a mob surrounded 00:06:49.500 --> 00:06:54.500 as everybody was crying, sobbing, and wailing 00:06:54.600 --> 00:06:55.980 and nobody knew what was going on. 00:06:55.980 --> 00:06:58.200 And I can remember the look of this child 00:06:58.200 --> 00:07:02.490 that looked up at me into my eyes 00:07:02.490 --> 00:07:05.400 and was in a complete anguish, 00:07:05.400 --> 00:07:08.760 and I just didn't know what to do 00:07:08.760 --> 00:07:13.760 beyond, you know, capturing, in a sense documenting 00:07:14.220 --> 00:07:15.633 and preserving this moment. 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:19.650 And, you know, all that unfolded in minutes 00:07:19.650 --> 00:07:24.650 and within in less than five minutes, a taxi showed up. 00:07:24.720 --> 00:07:27.480 She, you know, the wounded mother was loaded in the car 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:30.360 the child was loaded, and everybody else packed in 00:07:30.360 --> 00:07:35.100 and that taxi disappeared and went outta sight, 00:07:35.100 --> 00:07:38.760 and I could never track that family down afterwards. 00:07:38.760 --> 00:07:41.880 And that, you know, they always will stay in my mind. 00:07:41.880 --> 00:07:45.510 And I remember sitting down that evening 00:07:45.510 --> 00:07:47.880 as the image was getting published and I wondered, 00:07:47.880 --> 00:07:50.970 you know, what was going to happen to them? 00:07:50.970 --> 00:07:54.360 One of the image that I remember making from Ukraine 00:07:54.360 --> 00:07:56.850 came from the town of Irpin, 00:07:56.850 --> 00:07:59.876 and in one of their rescue attempts, 00:07:59.876 --> 00:08:03.870 a resident was trying to pack up 00:08:03.870 --> 00:08:06.600 and get onto this evacuation truck 00:08:06.600 --> 00:08:10.050 and noticed that his neighbor's dog was outside the house 00:08:10.050 --> 00:08:11.760 and wouldn't get inside. 00:08:11.760 --> 00:08:15.480 And because the city was still getting bombed by artillery, 00:08:15.480 --> 00:08:17.700 he didn't want the dog to remain outside. 00:08:17.700 --> 00:08:20.190 So in a swift instance, 00:08:20.190 --> 00:08:22.050 while artillery was still coming down around us, 00:08:22.050 --> 00:08:26.091 he kinda rests his forehead onto the dog's forehead 00:08:26.091 --> 00:08:28.650 and kinda calmed the dog's nerves 00:08:28.650 --> 00:08:30.780 and was able to move the dog into the house 00:08:30.780 --> 00:08:34.380 and into at least, you know, cover. 00:08:34.380 --> 00:08:36.810 And that image really resonated 00:08:36.810 --> 00:08:38.310 with a lot of people around the world. 00:08:38.310 --> 00:08:40.830 And I got a lot of correspondence from it 00:08:40.830 --> 00:08:42.180 probably because everybody wondered 00:08:42.180 --> 00:08:43.890 what happened to the dog. 00:08:43.890 --> 00:08:47.130 And but people were mostly, you know, touched by the fact 00:08:47.130 --> 00:08:51.570 that even in crisis that we do care. 00:08:51.570 --> 00:08:55.140 And a small act of humanity goes a long way, 00:08:55.140 --> 00:08:58.200 and represents like, you know, what we're able to do 00:08:58.200 --> 00:09:00.750 in a time of war. 00:09:00.750 --> 00:09:03.270 - I'm very proud of the staff of the Los Angeles Times, 00:09:03.270 --> 00:09:06.356 and I'm particularly proud of the risks, 00:09:06.356 --> 00:09:09.288 the work, and the talent, 00:09:09.288 --> 00:09:12.750 that the photo department has demonstrated 00:09:12.750 --> 00:09:15.300 not only through the pandemic, but always. 00:09:15.300 --> 00:09:17.070 Sometimes I can be kind of shy, 00:09:17.070 --> 00:09:20.010 and I really appreciate having an opportunity 00:09:20.010 --> 00:09:23.100 to share a little bit about behind the scenes 00:09:23.100 --> 00:09:28.100 of what I experienced, what we experienced this past year.