A tribute to Richard Avedon’s In The American West. In the summer of 1989, I started a series of portraits of people living in Hollywood. I set up the shoot in the shade, at my house. Then I wandered on Vine Street or Hollywood Blvd., looking for interesting faces. I asked people to come to my house for the sitting. Many refused, some agreed. The photographs shown here are the first ones in the series. They are mostly portraits of drifters and homeless people. I intended to incorporate a few photographs of celebrities, but I got busy on other topics and did not complete the series. There was a reason to mix bums with actors, winos with celebrities. During a sitting, the very limitations of photography and the discipline imposed by the view camera both tend to deprive the subject of his social varnish. The photographic process reveals connections between portraits that go far beyond money and fame, showing unexpected similarities between people at each end of the social ladder.