LA Originals

LA ORIGINALS tells the story of the rise of two best friends, photographer Estevan Oriol and graffiti and tattoo artist "Mr. Cartoon." Emerging from humble beginnings in the Los Angeles area, these two visual artists worked together to develop unique and iconic styles that shaped and influenced both hip-hop culture and the LA Chicano culture as an international phenomenon. Until the market crash of 2008, the two had a creative agency called Soul Assassins in the Skid Row section of downtown LA, where they befriended and documented the transients who lived and died on the streets around them. As Oriol gained international recognition for the iconic "LA Fingers" photograph, as well as photographing definitive photos of everyone from Snoop Dogg to Blink 182, Cartoon became a tattoo artist for the stars, inking Beyoncé, Kobe Bryant, and Justin Timberlake, and others.