Echo Park wasn’t always the preeningly hip, rapidly whitening Los Angeles enclave of vegan cafés and vinyl boutiques it is today. A few decades ago, when the photographer Reynaldo Rivera shared an apartment there with his sisters and a never-ending parade of passers-through, it was a predominantly Latino neighbourhood. It was also drug-soaked, dangerous, permissive and hugely fun.
“I thought if I could capture these moments, keep them on file, I could find some kind of order,” he said. “I was constantly creating the movie I wanted to be in as opposed to the one I was born into.” Among the characters in that movie is Cindy Gomez, whom we see taking command of the Echo Park flat as if it were an arena stage. She grips a microphone in one fist and leans into it, her mouth wide to release a presumably powerful note.