Simon Urwin // Lonely Planet Magazine

London-based photographer Simon Urwin photographed a travel story for Lonely Planet Magazine’s July feature on the city of Los Angeles.

As a former LA resident, I pitched the idea of a Sunset Boulevard piece to Lonely Planet HQ in London who commissioned it for both their US and UK titles. I’ve always wanted to do a spread on Sunset Blvd because LA is such an urban sprawl and Sunset ties a lot of the city together – both geographically and historically.  I researched and set up the whole shoot over a couple of weeks then worked alongside the writer Adam Skolnick, photographing the story over 7 days.

The Art Director, Hayley Ward, wanted a really immersive, contemporary image of LA to kick off the feature. The opening double-page spread is a result of driving the length of Sunset twice (a good 50 miles) scouting for locations before settling on a spot on the intersection of La Brea where I could safely get right in the middle of cars whilst the lights were on red. I must’ve run into the traffic at least 10 times as the sun was setting before capturing the image which leads the spread.

Credits

Publication: Lonely Planet
Art Director: Hayley Ward

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