Suitcase Joe, the anonymous LA-based photographer, is known for sharing important and often overlooked perspectives through his stunning portrait photography. His images often focus on the punks, the unhoused, and the abandoned, or what he calls “beautiful strangers.”
His latest book, dubbed Grey Flowers, is a departure from his previous book Sidewalk Champions, where he exclusively showcased raw portraits of those on Skid Row, a neighborhood in Downtown Los Angeles that contains one of the largest populations of unhoused people in the United States.
I wanted to travel to a new area of Los Angeles daily and find the people who inspire me, but most often get overlooked.
Suitcase Joe
Grey Flowers, in contrast, highlights Angelenos, capturing the many characters throughout the city’s neighborhoods who make Los Angeles unique. By focusing on the underappreciated, Suitcase Joe brings to life the cultural makeup of Los Angeles through a lens of respect and appreciation for society’s differences. Whether it be different classes, races, sexualities, or genders, the book and its portraits lean into what makes humans different.
“After photographing and documenting Skid Row for several years, I was ready for something new. I’d been thinking about making a book like Grey Flowers for years,” shares Joe when asked what the inspiration behind his book was. “I wanted to travel to a new area of Los Angeles daily and find the people who inspire me, but most often get overlooked. My biggest inspiration and goal was to make a book about Los Angeles that hadn’t been done. I did my best to capture as many different walks of life in as short an amount of time as possible.”
Suitcase Joe captured Skid Row because it was largely previously unshared; he felt, on a personal level, that by photographing the people who call it home, they would be part of the historical record. His new book, similarly, captures the spirits of those who aren’t classically documented. “Often the people I photograph are pre-judged or looked down upon for their chosen lifestyles of where they’re on the monetary ladder,” shares Joe. “I do my best to capture them in a dignifying way. I’ve photographed pimps, gangsters, punks, sex workers, drug addicts, and everyone in between, and they all have redeeming qualities. We all do.”
Through the depth of the images shared, Suitcase Joe hopes his readers will be inspired to pause in their personal lives and meet someone they usually wouldn’t respect through their stories. Grey Flowers can visually inspire us to travel outside of our social circles and mingle with those who might seem different on the surface. He also notes, “I’m currently developing and filming a docuseries based on some of the people and subcultures I learned about while photographing for Grey Flowers. I’ve teamed with another filmmaker and a few others, and it’s coming along nicely. More on that in the near future.”
Learn more about Grey Flowers and pre-order your copy (out this winter).
All images copyright Suitcase Joe.