He Has His Walking Points

The 6th Street bridge is elegant, even where paint flakes away and parched brown vines choke its Art Deco obelisks. In 1932, when it was built, it was a sight to see, the longest concrete span in California. On this day, Hopper paused partway across. Below him stretched the flat gray roofs of large industrial buildings. To his right, railroad tracks, a concrete river, a cat's cradle of freeways.

"Oh, I've got to get a picture of those ducts," he said as he pulled his camera from a case on his belt and trained it on a rooftop tangle of fat gray coils.

Across the bridge, a bearded man appeared, clanking along a shopping cart of cans. The man waved before crouching to scoop up a cigarette butt, and then he was gone.

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Hopper works at a post-production house, maintaining equipment on the night shift. He's an engineer with an engineer's methodical mind. He appreciates order.

A few months into his walking spree, he felt the need to record his travels. He set up a website. After a while, he bought a camera. In the last few years, he has taken maybe 3,000 pictures while walking.

On the home page he has written a brief statement of purpose:

"This is my contribution to all the useless information on the Internet -- some maps and photographic byproducts of my obsession with experiencing the greater Los Angeles area up close and personal."

His name and e-mail address don't appear. Hopper isn't looking for feedback or companionship.

On www.walkinginla.com, he catalogs each walk by date -- as in "February 29, 2004 Eastern Avenue." A click on a walk brings up a map, with a bold black line marking his path. Underneath each map are photos -- of parking lots, motels, mini-malls, power lines and train tracks. One photo shows a dumpster full of overripe tomatoes. Another, a pink-and-white Victoria's Secret bag lying on a dirty sidewalk.

One of Hopper's photos shows the L.A. River on a gray day. What water there is looks brown. Graffiti color the concrete banks. Above the banks are railroad tracks, with high-voltage towers looming over them. The caption reads: "The picturesque Los Angeles River meanders its way toward the Pacific Ocean on a beautiful Southern California day."

"Even the ugly things, I find beauty in. A lot of them make me laugh, and that's a form of beauty," he said.

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