This is the first of a series of projects that will explore the blocks that surround major intersections in the Los Angeles metropolitan area. LA is a splashed-together collection of neighborhoods, many of them identified by the intersections that channel flows of traffic. Photographing moments in the lives that interact around these intersections, I believe, will be an interesting way to get a feel for the radically mosaic character of the area.

Hollywood and Highland is located near the Hollywood Bowl. It is home to Grauman"s Chinese Theater and to Kodak Theater (where Academy Awards are annually conferred). It is a magnet for tourists.

Hollywood and Highland anchors a major redevelopment project, launched to lift Hollywood out of its infamous seediness. Curbed LA, an online magazine, is not impressed. It calls Hollywood and Highland the ugliest place in Los Angeles. The authors speak about the intersection's bad aesthetics, its unfriendliness, its confusing circulation, and its mishmash of archetectural styles.

I like Hollywood and Highland.

It's wierd. It's pushy. But it successfully embodies the Hollywood myth, which always was puzzling. How could a place so physically pedestrian exercise such a powerful hold on the international imagination?