The Crips…

In the summer of 1973 I photographed Stanley “Tookie” Williams, founder of the West Side Crips, along with five original members. They all wanted their pictures taken, and posed — “fronting off,” as they called it. Five years later, there were 45 Crips gangs in Los Angeles County. By the early 1980s, the number of Crips “sets” in LA County had more than doubled. The crack cocaine epidemic pushed them into at least 41 states, and the gang became widely referenced in music, film, and media as a symbol of gang culture and urban violence — a fixture in American pop culture. Despite the notoriety, there are few photographs of the early members, and none presenting themselves as they wanted to be seen.