The average LA driver spent 62 hours sitting in traffic in 2021, according to Inrix. What do you do with all that time, seemingly wasted? Photographer Lev Rukhin decided to attach a three-foot-wide strobe flash to the top of his old, avocado-green Volvo station wagon. With it, Rukhin takes pictures of only-in-LA moments while he cruises the streets.
It’s all part of a photo project he calls Los AngelLEV, which started as a way to slow down the everyday scenes he and his daughter passed on their way to her school.
“We all see a story unfolding on the sidewalk. … I always noticed the tension. Everybody's in a hurry in Los Angeles,” he explains. “I really slowed it down. … I wanted to engage my daughter's interest also in the beauty of the city, and the people that are standing on the sidewalks, the murals, all the different pockets and neighborhoods of the city that it feels like you're going around the world.”
By giving his daughter control of the camera, Rukhin saw the city streets through her eyes. Eventually, he took over the photographing, which gave him a new view of LA.
Photographer Lev Rukhin has been capturing images of everyday life from his avocado-green station wagon for more than a decade. Photo by Lev Rukhin.
Photo By Lev Rukhin.
Photo By Lev Rukhin.
Photo By Lev Rukhin.
Photo By Lev Rukhin.
Photo By Lev Rukhin.
Photo By Lev Rukhin.
Photo By Lev Rukhin.
Photo By Lev Rukhin.
Photo By Lev Rukhin.
“I would take different routes home, which broke up the pattern and the boredom of taking the same way home. And the city really began to show itself. And it was really interesting to follow the story by really paying attention and looking at the city through the passenger side window rather than just the windshield.”
The photos also serve as a living record of how LA has evolved.
“This is my home and it's constantly changing. You will be driving one day and suddenly, a quarter of a city block is just gone, and you struggle to remember what was there, and you have some fond memories of a corner store or a gas station. These photos, I noticed after a couple of years, really began to serve as … an archive of styles and murals that come and go.”