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Andrew French traveled from Colorado to California with a car full of friends to visit Bergamot Station in Santa Monica and attend the opening reception of INSTANT GRATIFICATION: los angeles.

The following Polaroids document his journey.

WHAT WAS YOUR STRUGGLE TO MAKE IT AS A PHOTOGRAPHER LIKE?
My struggle was to make money and keep doing my art for me. When I first came to California, I camped out on PCH in my Honda Accord while looking for an apartment for three weeks – it was fun, though, because the west coast is so pretty.

Then [my boyfriend and I] found an apartment and then I went through a couple jobs:
I first worked with retail in Santa Monica for one year and then quit because retail jobs held me back and didn’t allow me for flexibility; and they didn’t even pay me enough to make ends meet.

Friend of the musician and enemy of falsehood, Autumn de Wilde channels her calling as a photographer to make Beck take flight and Elliot Smith smile.

She is the poster child for neo-romantics everywhere.

Those who can quote scenes from Garden State ver batem, or read Nick Hornby books while listening to the Arcade Fire on loop, take heed: you have met the documentalist of your innermost pinings.

It may seem strange to learn something as American as a good old-fashioned work ethic. And given his motto, Creativity Through Rebellion, it may sound outright absurd that Bradley Meinz values it. But there are a number of typically American influences at play here.

A mariachi, throat open to the sky. A conservatively-dressed woman victoriously raising a walkie-talkie before a backdrop of flags. A stern CEO looking down at his audience. A recurring collection of black clothing and stark tattoos. A diapered toddler receiving a drink from a hose. These are some of the poignant, alternately quiet and vibrant images you may feel yourself drawn to upon opening Bradley’s website.

These are the striking words of a Jamaican man, Peter Dean Rickards, who takes equally striking and somewhat discordant photographs of the sights he feels particularly representative of his homeland. Yet to call him a photographer might be a bit of a sacrilege. Peter also writes and is the editor of “FIRST”, a bi-monthly magazine based in Jamaica. “It’s hard for me to think of myself as a photographer. When someone calls me a photographer I tend to cringe since I don’t take photography all that seriously.” So then why take his work seriously?

One photographer’s mission to evade the spectacle, one portrait at a time…

The art of celebrity is sheer constructivism.

Constructed image, constructed persona, and constructed lifestyle. Just the right application of bronzer before heading out the door to a macrobiotic lunch right smack dab in front of the café window. Smile and wave for the herd of paparazzi pacing outside. Careful not to wave too heartily…you are over thirty, and no one wants to have visible “arm wobble” for US Weekly to sink their teeth into.

Constructed stereotype is par for the course.

A year or so ago as a photography student, I began to explore the mysteries of the HOLGA, a cheap little plastic camera that doesn’t weigh a thing. The allure of this contraption was that I could shoot medium format film, without having to spend the exorbitant amounts of cash on a high-class camera. But with the HOLGA, you do get what you pay for: a temperamental and limited tool.

Last May I heard about Java Lanes closing through a friend who bowled in a league there. I immediately headed over, knowing that this would be the last opportunity I had to photograph this amazing iconic structure. I took a few different cameras with me on each visit - a medium format, a plastic camera I bought for a $1, a Holga (another plastic camera) and my newly acquired SX-70 Polaroid.