FreewayBloom
Something spectacular happens each Spring in Los Angeles – a remarkable bloom of desert flowers in the most unexpected places, the on-ramps and berms of the freeways running through and around Los Angeles, as well as along the city’s essential infrastructure, dams and tunnels. This explosion of colours, textures, and shapes bordering the city’s asphalt and concrete corridors reminds us that the land is not finished with us, nor we with it. In the most unlikely places, nature shocks us into companionship.
With my collaborator novelist Ivy Pochoda, who is local to Los Angeles, I began photographing these flowers, trying to capture the unlikely appearance of such vibrant nature alongside, behind, below, and on top of the known city. We discovered in our first outings a wholly unexpected side to Los Angeles, one that startled us with its surprising elegance and wild beauty.
Introductory Quote
Something spectacular happens each Spring in Los Angeles – a remarkable bloom of desert flowers in the most unexpected places, the on-ramps and berms of the freeways running through and around Los Angeles, as well as along the city’s essential infrastructure, dams and tunnels.
— Ivy Pochoda
Portfolio
![Brightly coloured wildflowers and palm trees cover the side of a hill off of the 1 highway at dusk in Los Angeles.](img/projects/freeway/pchigh/davies_pchwy_a_psweh8_c_scale,w_2400.jpg)
![Wildflowers and vines attached to the side of the elevated 405 highway in Los Angeles.](img/projects/freeway/sepulveda/davies_sepulveda_mubdwg_c_scale,w_3000.jpg)
![Terraced hill with construction and black barked palm trees behind hills are covered with yellow wildflowers, off of the 1 highway in Los Angeles.](img/projects/freeway/pchighB/davies_pchwy_b_zwlvus_c_scale,w_3000.jpg)
![Hill covered with bright pink, yellow, and white wildflowers on the side of a hill off of the 110 freeway in Los Angeles.](img/projects/freeway/lilac/davies_lilac_roj9aw_c_scale,w_3000.jpg)
![Red and yellow wildflowers at dusk off of the 1 highway in Los Angeles.](img/projects/freeway/pchighC/davies_pchwy_c_hcczxs_c_scale,w_3000.jpg)
![Graffiti (mostly illegible) is written on the palm tree trunks on the edge of a freeway in Los Angeles.](img/projects/freeway/lacy/davies_lacy_ul1zx9_c_scale,w_3000.jpg)
![On the side of the entrance ramp to the highway a large pile of trash has been dumped in between flowering bushes.](img/projects/freeway/I101/davies_I101_sfgmx3_c_scale,w_3000.jpg)
![Looking down over Elysian Park in Los Angles covered in yellow wildflowers, 110 Freeway runs below, mountains in distance.](img/projects/freeway/buenaVista/davies_buena_to9t9i_c_scale,w_3000.jpg)