The City of Angels Art Portfolio by Eric Kim

THE CITY OF ANGELS is a photography triptych that honors the rough edges and honest beauty of Los Angeles, California. While walking in Downtown Los Angeles, I (Eric Kim) met multi-faceted strangers and sought to create portraits imbued with emotion, soul, and mystery. I hope that these images remind others of the beauty of fleeting encounters and the serendipity of life. I made these photographs from 2011 to 2016 in Downtown Los Angeles. The City of Angels Art Portfolio is a collaboration between me (Eric) and Cindy, whose background in hand printing and history of the book brought the project into fruition. Each art portfolio is unique, made of organic materials, and responsive to touch. The portfolio may be viewed as a tri-fold book or displayed on the wall from its button-string closure. We wanted to push the boundaries on what is considered 'conventional' wisdom for photo prints and art. In order to produce a 'haptic' and unique print, we used laser printing on textured paper because it would produce slightly different results for each print. For monochromatic prints, laser printing adds to the irregular, rough, and individualized feel that we wanted to convey in the images. For the cover, Cindy hand sketched Eric's photograph of Los Angeles, carved it into a linoleum block, and hand printed it using archival oil-based ink. This resulted in a slightly raised, irregular, and unique texture on the cover of the portfolio. For more information, see the Eric Kim Photography blog.