Hollywood Street Characters Ken Hermann Behind the mask...

Hollywood Street Characters Ken Hermann

Behind the mask is a series of portraits of the people working as Hollywood street characters on the Hollywood Boulevard in LA. The street characters make a living by letting themselves being photographed together with the thousands of tourists who visit the Boulevard each day and pay them a tip them to take a shot.  

Some of the street characters does a really good job acting as look-alikes and they actually look a lot like some of the big Hollywood stars while others just look like silly grownups in poor and dirty costumes. Most of the street characters have one thing in common though. They are - or once where - pursuing the American dream of becoming someone special and famous. And, it is this struggle mixed with the childish fantasy world I find interesting.   

My idea was to give the viewer a glimpse of the person behind the mask and to show a more serious aspect of the character. Normally the street characters are pictured with a funny face in lively settings but instead I was aiming for the more personal expression of the real person behind the mask. In order to enhance this several of the portraits was also taken in the characters’ own home or neighborhood. 

Photographs and text by  Ken Hermann