Downtown LA

Martin Elkort moved to Los Angeles in 1960 where he worked in advertising and then eventually in the travel industry. When his interest in photography re-awakened after retirement in 2000, he turned to roaming the streets, camera around his neck, in downtown Los Angeles. There he found similar ethic and immigrant neighborhoods that mirrored the complex cultural scenes he enjoyed shooting during his early photography work in New York during the mid 1940s through the early 1950s. The Santee Alley, a local outdoor mall in the Fashion District, served as the inspiration of numerous photo safaris where he liked to document the bargain shoppers interacting with the local merchants.