Metropolis Photos: Photography by Juanita Richeson - Are You Sworn? LAPD Cops Making Art

In 1992, I began asking LAPD cops to tell me and show me what art was. Upon moving to LA in 1991, I first photographed a bilingual class of 5^th and 6^th graders making art, duplicating the process I had begun in New York City.

When I approached the LAPD, in early 1992, Los Angeles was still consumed with the effects of the Rodney King beating. The riots had not yet occurred and Daryl Gates was still Police Chief. I described my project to LAPD Press Relations, asked to do it with LAPD officers and it was approved. Because of the chaos caused by the riots, I didn’t begin until September 1992. I started at the Police Academy, photographing new recruits and DARE officers. Once I had those photos, I went to nine other police stations in Los Angeles and photographed rank-and-file patrol officers and detectives. I received permission from the commanding officer at each location and showed up at shift change times with my art materials. I stood at the entrance used by the officers coming on and off duty and asked for volunteers. All participants received a matted photo print of themselves in exchange for letting me keep their art. Because many people weren’t in uniform, I approached them and asked, "Are you sworn?" because this is the way they identify themselves as cops; they take an oath to protect and serve.

Over the next five years, Los Angeles and the LAPD continued to make international news. O.J. Simpson was tried twice, Willie Williams was hired and replaced, the causes of the riots and continuing problems within the LAPD were studied. I photographed 135 officers making art and recorded their responses to the question "What is Art?"

The art they produced consisted of subjects entirely of their own choosing and was accomplished using a variety of media. The art was diverse and thoughtful. Subjects included issues concerning specific historical events involving the LAPD, philosophical positions on crime and ethics, personal issues such as family and hobbies, and traditional still lifes and abstract compositions.

In late 1997, I concluded the project and approached LAPD Command about expanding it into Los Angeles neighborhoods, with cops and kids making art together in locations of historic importance to each neighborhood. Despite more than eighteen months of in- depth discussion, planning and widespread interest both within the LAPD and the general community, LAPD Command was unable to move beyond verbal declarations of interest.

Click on any small image to link to the page documenting that artwork.

In 1991, I began my training as an artist with a desire for creative independence within the Academy. I ended the decade unsuccessfully trying to apply that freedom found to another bureaucracy. But as the project progressed, I understood that it addressed other issues that I would incorporate into future work: themes of Outsider art; the use and abuse of power in society; the paradox of control and creativity being too often at odds, and the imbalance between art’s structures and its purposes. My original questions were answered by watching: first people on the street, immigrant children, then the 135 LAPD cops, all pursuing an enigma. The work submitted here is a small portion of the evidence collected.

The characteristic property of an inventive art is that it bears no resemblance to art as it is generally recognized and in consequence—and this is all the more so as it is more inventive—that it does not seem like art at all.

Jean Dubuffet