Artists find inspiration among homeless in L.A.'s skid row

Some European tourists spend their vacations at Yosemite or Big Sur. Desiree van Hoek takes hers on skid row.

For the last five years, the Dutch photographer has dedicated much of the summer to shooting what she describes as the beauty and humor beneath the grit and misery of the 50-block downtown homeless enclave.

"I'm a little bit hooked on skid row right now," Van Hoek said recently.

Maybe it's the Lambruscos and ethnic cafes that are bringing the hipsters of downtown Los Angeles face to face with skid row's street encampments. Or a renewed local and national focus on the homeless crisis. But what was once a no-man's land is alive with documentary filmmakers, artists and even a comic, seeking their canvas, or a muse, amid the tarps and cardboard boxes.

An installation by Los Angeles Poverty Department, a 30-year-old skid row theater troupe, was part of the late artist Mike Kelley's show this summer at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA.

"All of a sudden it became a thing to make your own portrait or caricature of skid row," said skid row activist Kevin Michael Key.

Some of those who work with the homeless, such as Ann-Sophie Morrissette of the Downtown Women's Center, call some of the art "poverty porn."

Drive-by videos of needles, filth and vermin shot from car windows by kids with their faces hidden by blankets, and set to dirge-like soundtracks invite viewers to gawk at homeless people without context or understanding, critics say. Other projects are dismissed as the naive work of newbies who think they'll be the first to expose skid row or save it.

Some artists find the atmosphere less than welcoming. Shanks Rajendran, an Australian filmmaker, said he was robbed this summer during the making of "Los Scandalous Skid Row." Rajendran described the documentary as the story of "the true gutter life in Los Angeles; from prostitution, homelessness, hard addiction, the drug dealers' perspective, police corruption and the system designed to keep them all there."

For a series called "Life Line Booth," Toronto filmmaker Ryan Oksenberg and friends installed a table, chairs, water, donated clothing and a bulletin board in front of a bank of sidewalk pay phones.

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Artists find inspiration among homeless in L.A.'s skid row