The new photo zine exploring the gentrification of LA’s Venice Beach

[L]A’s iconic Venice Beach is a historic hangout for the city’s geeks and freaks. From the stacked, tanned and oiled bodybuilders at Muscle Beach to the strung out surfers, the area’s well known homeless community and the hippies, potheads and vagabonds who patrol the boardwalk or the sand in search of somewhere to take in a spliff and a sunset, Venice is part anarchic Bohemian meeting place, part historic counter-culture reference, part tourist trap. It’s also home to Snapchat’s office.

For his new zine, South African photographer Robert Lang who is now based in Los Angeles has documented the shifting culture in Venice, where Snapchat is considered the catalyst for social cleansing, gentrification and the transformation of the area into ‘Silicone Beach’. Investors are moving in, rent is going up and Venice’s devoted inhabitants are starting to fight back. Lang captures those residents in sharp-focussed candour, recalling the work of seminal street photographers  Martin Parr and Bruce Gilden.

See images from his zine 11.11 below and follow him on Instagram here.