Photographing LA Artists - DesignLA - New LA Times Sunday Magazine

 The New Noir  by  Rodrigo Ribera D'Ebre - features Jim McHugh's work and collaborations with the renown LA artists Big Sleeps and Prime and the world of Graffiti art. 

There is no city more noir than Los Angeles. We wrote the book on it and we shot the film. One such documentarian of this phenomenon is Jim McHugh, photographer of noir landscapes and renowned artists like Ed Ruscha, Robert Graham, and David Hockney. Currently, McHugh spends time photographing avant-garde artists of the underground. It is a dark world that intersects fine art, street gangs, graffiti, tattoos, murals, and urban street wear. 

Two agents of change unfolding in this cinematic drama are David ‘Big Sleeps’ Cavazos and Jose ‘Prime’ Reza. Born and raised on the seedy streets of Pico Union near Downtown L.A.Their work is straight up Los Angeles – grimy, in-your-face, and unapologetic. Simultaneously, it is contemporary and stunning.

McHugh who maintains that, “Big Sleeps and Prime have been my passport to a whole other Los Angeles. A world of remarkable artists who have existed in a culturally separate parallel universe.”