After Disneyland, Venice Beach is the second largest tourist attraction in southern California and over a three-year period, photographer Dotan Saguy captured the artists, bodybuilders, musicians, vendors and homeless people who made up the diverse community. With gentrification creeping in, his work, documented in a book and an exhibition at the Venice Arts Gallery in Los Angeles, acts as a snapshot of a way of life that might fade away.
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Five-year-old Jackson watches a boa constrictor while another slithers toward his mom Jenna, relaxing nearby in the sand. A street performer entrusted the two locals with his large boas while taking a quick break from the bustle of the boardwalkVenice Beach: The Last Days of a Bohemian Paradise by Dotan Saguy is out now
A skateboarder jumps high over the Venice Skate Park, briefly letting his lone shadow imprint the bottom of the pool
A group of young skateboarders gather to smoke marijuana in the early morning sun in front of the Touch of Venice mural on Windward Avenue. They came from various parts of the country to live the bohemian lifestyle on Venice Beach for a few days before moving on to their next destination
On 3 March 2017, the day Snapchat goes public on the Nasdaq, Venice residents organize a protest in front of Snapchat’s Market Street headquarters. Since the protest, Snapchat has accelerated its expansion – buying many buildings, pushing out community artists and small businesses, installing private security guards at every corner, and effectively turning the boardwalk into its own corporate campus
The closing of the Venice Beach Freakshow on 30 April 2017 may have been one of the most emblematic moments in the gentrification of Venice Beach. After a decade of circus-like performances – featuring two-headed turtles, five-legged dogs, bearded ladies, sword swallowers and other cast members who glorified the weird and the outcast – the Venice Beach Freakshow was forced out of its location on the boardwalk. The culprit? Snapchat wanted to expand to yet another building on the boardwalk
An improvised performance by Elizabeth, a local artist dressed as a white bird, and Freedom, a homeless musician, turns into a group dance as a handful of spectators join in. Elizabeth and her homeless counterpart decided to perform the improvised dance together on a grassy hill by the beach after meeting for the first time at Cafe Gratitude earlier that day
A weightlifter raises a barbell loaded with heavy plates while Ike Catcher performs an aerial handstand at the world-famous Muscle Beach Gym
King and Queen Neptune frolic in the Pacific Ocean waters, celebrating the start of summer with the yearly Neptune Parade
A young woman dances at the Venice Beach Drum Circle, as the sun sets over the ocean on a warm summer evening