te APRECIO

George Rodriguez/all images courtesy of Hat & Beard Press

George Rodriguez, now 80, still doesn’t go anywhere without taking pictures.

“People don’t recognize me without my camera,” he tells NPR’s Mandalit Del Barco. “I like to document everything that’s goin’ on.”

For nearly six decades, the photographer has chronicled Los Angeles: Hollywood, the Chicano movement, hip-hop pioneers and beyond. His work is now being celebrated with his first retrospective, at the Lodge Gallery in Los Angeles, and a book called Double Vision: The Photography of George Rodriguez.

Check out Mandalit’s profile of him here.

SPINNING OUT TOWARD

A DESIRE THAT WASN’T PURE

BORN BEFORE THE VIRUS WAS CURED

PITCH PERFECT

VIOLINS ON THE FLOOR

FAST FORWARD LININGS ON MY SKULL

TYPE OF DESIGN I COULD AFFORD

FAST FORWARD BANDS OUT

GOT THEY HANDS OUT

LIKE THEY’RE ACKNOWLEDGING THE FÜHRER

REWIND NAS TRACK 6

REWIND DANCE CRAZES

READ MY MIND

FREED MY MIND

FEED MY MIND

MAKES SENSE

JUST LIKE MIRRORS ON THE WALL

JUST LIKE SITTING ON ME

RAW IN MIRRORS SEEN IT ALL

COULD MAKE TWO

A PIECE OF MIND

FLICKING ASH

POURING A HALF

DONT POUR IN A GLASS

POUR IT IN FOAM

THAT’S WHITE LIKE EGGSHELLS IN MY OMELETTE

MY EARLOBES ARE YELLOW LIKE THE YOLK IS RUNNING

MY BRAINS ON DRUGS

I STILL HAVE NO PEACE OF MIND

FUCK

WOOF WOOF DOGS IN THE PLACE

LOOSE TOOTH LOST IN THE FRAY

ROOF LOST IN THE WRAITH

ROOF LOST ON THE WAY

FREEWAY

NO ROZAY

BRUTE FORCE

BRUT CHAMPAGNE

TELL THE FRONT DESK TO CUT NEW KEYS

RESERVED IN THE MERCER FOR TWO YEARS

IN TWO SUITES

TOOK OUT THE BED LIKE ITS FUCK SLEEP

ILL SMACK A BITCH LIKE ITS HOT HANDS

FIRED THE LABEL LIKE FUCK BRANDS

COMFORTABLE LOW NIGGA FUCK XANS

COMFORTABLE SLOW WHO THE FUCK RAN

NOTHING IS SWEET

NOTHING IN TANK SWEET

ITS JUST A TANK P

SALT ON A SLUG

SODA ON SLUGGED TEETH

CHEWING ON NOTHING

UR TWEAKING OR SOMETHING

UR SPEAKING SPEAK UP THEN

UR THINKING UR OVERTHINKING

ONE BLINK AND IM PRECUMMING

THAT COULD TURN EVERY NO ONE