Anthony Hernandez took up photography around 1970. Initially he was compelled to record his immediate surroundings – the streets and people of LA. Building on the aesthetic and approaches of 1950s street photography, Hernandez was less concerned about capturing the ‘decisive moment’ of reality but rather the ‘puzzling’ one. His early black and white photographs of the mundane life lack any attempt at the spectacular. The photographer was drawn to the subtle anxiety underlying the urban environment, which simmers beneath the gigantic, imposing and sometimes absurd structures of the city. In his 1970s works people are caught unaware by Hernadez’s camera – their faces and figures etched with discomfort and a hint of confusion. The cold, analytical lens of Hernandez’s work was symptomatic to the more critically aware photography coming out in the 1970s and 80s.
Continuing in this line, the artist developed his exploration of urban space further in large format photographs depicting various ‘liminal’ sites such as motorways, roads and water canals. People are seem absent there, but their traces are everywhere to be seen.

As the photographer himself has stated ‘ . . . My work may be beautiful or it might not be, that just isn’t what I am concerned with. I try to be open and face the city. . . . To me it’s not unpleasant or unbeautiful, it’s just life–which has to be threatening sometimes if it is going to be interesting.’