Estevan Oriol: Family Values

words :: Chris Ahrens/Owen Leimbach
photos :: Estevan Oriol

"Turn right here," Mr. Estevan says, directing the driver of his newly purchased 1962 Lincoln Continental into one of L.A.’s burned out backstreets, where the old heart of the city can be traced by following its veins, the streetcar tracks, which once pumped blood in and out of a thriving downtown. Here, too, is where Estevan intends to photograph his subject, Academy Award winner Adrien Brody.

Adrien steps out onto the pavement and click, click, click, in under an hour, the shoot is complete, cover and center spread accomplished, using one or two lenses, no lights, no assistant.

Since that day, We’ve done several shoots with Estevan. It’s always been the same—several rolls of film shot on one camera at a thoughtful yet rapid pace. I’ve been within feet of him as he works and I’ve observed how he lets his subjects breathe, offering them the rare opportunity of being themselves. Maybe that’s why Estevan’s subjects look like they want to speak to you from the mute stillness of a photograph.

In an industry dependent upon airbrushed beauty and armies of makeup artists, the screen image sometimes fades as something far more intriguing emerges. Seeking to "capture the person at their most beautiful," Estevan accomplishes this without trickery.

His subjects are generally shown in natural light, comfortably standing alone and without props, rather than being pounded by harsh studio lights and buried beneath tons of makeup. It’s the same with actors ranging from his friend Danny Trejo to his latest superstar subject, Dennis Hopper, both of whom have benefited from the self-taught street wisdom of a master who looks deep, capturing their essences better than most anyone else.

Estevan has shot several covers for RISEN as well as features and covers for Rolling Stone, The Source, The Fader, and other national magazines. When mags want it real, they call Estevan. Interviewed exclusively for Risen Magazine.

Risen Magazine: Where are we going right now?

Estevan Oriol: Wolfgang Puck’s. It’s fine Italian cuisine made by Wolfgang Puck. They got some healthy food, you know. It’s like a higher-end chain restaurant. We go there because we get sick of eating everywhere around here.

Now, down here in the middle of all the buildings is where they have all the arty-farty restaurants.

RM: How do you feel about it getting that way down here in your area?

EO: I don’t like it but what can I do? I don’t have millions of dollars to buy up these buildings and preserve them. If I could afford to buy them and preserve them, I would.

What makes me sick about people in L.A. is that they don’t care about the icons of L.A.—the old buildings. They just want to rip them down and put new stuff up. It just ruins the whole look of our city.

Like this car wash right here. This is out of the ’70s like that movie Car Wash, you know? But now they went out of business and somebody will come in and buy it and make something else out of it.

They’ll make a lot of money for everybody and that’s great, but to me those kinda car washes are iconic symbols of L.A. You don’t see that stuff everywhere.

I get kinda bummed out driving through L.A. when I see all of these new buildings going up and cranes. We’re already pretty packed here. What are they going to do, just keep bringing in more and more people?

What can you do, man? Go with the flow.

RM: Are you going to stay down here forever? What would make you leave?

EO: I don’t think it will get to the point in my lifetime where it will become that sickening. But it’s already moving that way. We’re down here in Skid Row and there are these lofts right around the corner and some of them were going for four million.

So you’ve got a situation where this guy spent all this money and he doesn’t want to hear someone’s stereo. How can you move to Skid Row and complain about the noise when you’ve got rats the size of possums running around and there are drug addicts everywhere?

RM: Have you taken a picture on every block down here?

EO: Just the good ones. There’s some that don’t look good in pictures because they’ve messed them up already. I like the old- school-looking buildings. I like the rough, raw-looking stuff. Most of it is just too polished.

If I was doing a picture with a bunch of suits—all stiffed-out—if I had a flash on in the daytime like everybody else does, then I would just do it up with those new buildings.

RM: What’s the most "L.A." block in the city?

EO: There’s Vernon and 46th, which is a street just full of palm trees with all of those two- or three-bedroom family houses. It’s real hood right there. There’s San Julian, a.k.a. Skid Row, that’s real sick with it.

There’s Whittier Boulevard in East L.A., or Broadway right here in downtown. Broadway’s a crazy street, there’s so much history there. There are so many streets that represent different parts of L.A.

But I would say for one street to represent the whole city I would probably say Sunset Boulevard. Because that takes you from Gladstone’s where the turf meets the surf, you got the restaurant there with all the seagulls. And you keep taking it east until you get East L.A., in the hood. It will take you about 45 minutes to an hour, but it’s dope. You go from around Malibu beach, through Beverly Hills, through Hollywood, through East Hollywood into downtown, then to East L.A. That’s it. That’s L.A. right there.

RM: Have you ever worked in a restaurant?

EO: I’ve had almost every kind of job you could have. I’ve done every kind of manual labor. I’ve worked every job there is in a restaurant, from busboy to waiter, to cook — everything. I worked construction, from the runt all the way up to right under the boss. I’ve worked in clubs from the DJ to the door. If you were cool you could come in; if you were an idiot you couldn’t. We didn’t need your money.

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