Michael Jackson Memorial – On the Streets

I like to plan things because, well, if I don’t plan it then it will likely not happen. However, just as often as I carry out a planned action, I also do a lot of spontaneous things. Shooting in downtown Los Angeles during the Michael Jackson Memorial was such an instance, as it only occurred to me on the eve of the memorial as something to consider doing.

The plan was simple — get as close as possible to the Staples Center and see what was happening on the streets. I really had no idea what to expect, nor did I do much research on it. Heck, I was in bed just 90 minutes after I committed to doing it. The streets in the morning were unusually quiet, and I was convinced that a lot of people did what they could to stay off the roads, perhaps to avoid anticipated traffic and/or to stay home and watch the memorial service on TV.

For those who were wondering how crazy it was downtown, well, it wasn’t. It was almost disappointing, actually. While thousands were there, it wasn’t the tens of thousands I was kind of anticipating. In any case, I’m glad I went because I had been quite out of touch with the news this past week. I really should have been shooting the whole week instead.

As I expected, there were individual vendors of all sorts of memorabilia including buttons, CDs, shirts, hats, gloves, magnets and even watches with Michael Jackson photos printed on their faces. It’s amazing how quickly people put things together. Of course, there were the look-a-likes and impersonators — some good, some not so good. All in all, it was a pretty controlled crowd. LAPD officers were very polite and everyone seemed cooperative.

I had two hours in my parking meter, and that’s as long as I shot for. By the middle of the service, many street vendors were directed by LAPD to shut down and the town went quiet.

I’m posting these images as any pure photojournalist would (i.e., without any color tweaking or enhancements, retouching, etc.). Except for some cropping on a few images, these are straight out of the camera.