I moved here in 1986 and have been here ever since. I left England in 1985, and lived in Mexico City for a year, where I learned to speak Spanish and did a lot of street photography.
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I've been photographing this gang (Westside Playboys) since 1992, and it was just a long, slow process.
I first started going down to the neighborhood in January 1992, and I kept going back every week — and a mutual trust evolved. Then back in 1994, when there was a lot of trouble with the Rampart CRASH unit (Anti gang police).
I was a finalist for the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Award and was asked to photograph "everyday violence" So one element that I tried to take pictures of was the police with the gang members, but the police would harass me and threaten me whenever I'd try to photograph them.
Read the rest of Robert Yager's interview here plus here's another interview.
See his latest work for Los Angeles magazine "Urban Scrawl" story.
I remember working at PIX back then, when Robert would come into the store and tell us stories and show us an image of two. I was an instant fan of his work. It was so cool to see someone working on a great project back then, and even better to see the photos now. Thanks for presenting us with such great imagery again!
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