Portfolio Review: Photographer Gregory Bojorquez Shares His Favorite Works

Gregory Bojorquez has been photographing the people and places within Los Angeles for years. Whether capturing women in Hollywood, his hot lady friends, crime, or musicians, he keeps it raw and in-your-face. We caught up with him to get the word on his favorite photographs and what inspires him to document LA culture in its various manifestations.

Portfolio Review: Photographer Gregory Bojorquez Shares His Favorite Works

"My friends and I were drinking wine in the park and my friend Michelle started riding a swing. I timed the shot and snapped my Rolleiflex just as she paused at the peak."

"Fifty was in LA for an event he had to be at. I took this photo in the driveway of The Beverly Hills Hotel just off Sunset Boulevard where he was staying. After the photo, he accidentally dropped all the money on the floor and carefully picked it all back up."

"I was at a car show with my friend Shady taking pictures of the Car Show girls. There was one group of nineteen and twenty something year old Latina girls who really started having fun with the opportunity and this was a resulting image."

"I was photographing my model friend at a house on Seward Street in Hollywood where several friends of mine were having some beers."

"Josie was a very nice girl with a very nice ass. She lived just south of the train tracks on Roosevelt Street in Montebello. We use to get really friendly together in the back seat of my 1969 Chevrolet Camaro. I snapped this photo of her through the reflection of my Cadillac’s passenger side mirror right before we went on a beer run."

"I shot this photo on the street in front of Snoop’s house. He rolled and smoked three blunts in about an hour."

"I was shooting a suit story of my friend, model Tony Ward for a magazine in Paris that was doing an 'Icon' issue. I wanted this establishing shot with the Downtown skyline to tie the spread with Los Angeles."

"I met an Italian Long Island girl in Hollywood that I liked to photograph."

"There were people running past me on Sunset Boulevard with fear in their faces. There were cars violently turning with screeching tires avoiding the intersection at Sunset and Vine. The last man that past said that someone was shooting. I ignored him and walked in the direction everyone was running from. There was a troubled man firing at random cars. It was surreal at first, but the reality of the situation set in and I ran for cover. As I was taking a camera out of my snap shot bag, a patrol car made the seen with two plain clothed LAPD officers. I shouted at one that he had to do something. He ran down Vine and I followed close behind. The officer shouted for the shooter to put down his weapon a couple times and the shooter yelled back, 'I want to die!' Holding a knife in his left hand, the shooter made a sudden move as if he were drawing the .45 he was firing on innocent people, and he was hit five times by the officers .45. I shot several frames right as the shooter went down as several officers ran north up Vine in my direction. Seconds after, I saw a man who was shot slumped in the driver seat of the silver Mercedes. I looked back at the shooter and he was motionless in the street."

"This photo was taken at a gas station in Montebello on a Sunday night. Sunday nights in the summer time were cruise nights on Whittier Boulevard, which is about a mile south of this photo. The police started pulling over everybody and harassed them to discourage the cruising. Some of the cops had their guns drawn on the occupants of the low riders as one cop yelled into his speaker that I was in the line of fire."

"On a very hot summer day, I was walking in the street and looked up to see a skywriter writing WISH YOU WERE HERE. I ran to my place to get a camera and luckily there was not much wind and the letters stayed together. The words reminded me of the Pink Floyd song, Wish You Were Here, which makes me think of people I miss. I clearly remember Wish You Were Here playing on the radio right after a good friend of mine had been murdered."

"A school bus was parked at the stadium filled up with yelling kids who were proudly showing their 'LA' helmets after a Dodger game."