David Cruz: Owner of Eight Chickens and a Self-proclaimed Mezcal & Street Taco Connoisseur

Kodak 35mm Film Wedding Photographer from Oaxaca, Mexico Anchored in Los Angeles

Dixeebee (dee-shee-bay) exclamation, informal: proclaiming gratitude towards mother earth when expressing good wishes before drinking Mezcal

I'm David Cruz, The Drunk Wedding Photographer. Born in the slums of Oaxaca, Mexico to Mixteco parents, grandparents, and great grandparents. I'm a fire rabbit Sagittarius, I own eight chickens, I hate the summer, I despise wearing shoes, I edit client's pictures as I listen to Relatos de la Noche, I can complete Donkey Kong Country 3 at 105%, I grew up watching Daria, my guilty pleasure is watching Kitchen Nightmares, Tabatha Takes Over and high-speed police pursuits on live TV, and my favorite album is Sing the Sorrow.

We immigrated to Los Angeles in early 1993, just months after the L.A. Riots, and lived in the MacArthur Park Rampart area for a few years before moving to the hood — South Central. Both neighborhoods were shitholes then, and are shitholes now, ain't even gonna lie. But as they say, there's no place like home. Anyway… I'm a self-proclaimed Mezcal and street taco connoisseur as in, I eat with my hands and prefer to drink in the morning, Pulque and Tepache from random street vendors in the Piñata District included. And while I'm a Mexicant country bumpkin at heart, I'm a certified L.A. hillbilly for serving time in the LAUSD — all twelve years — the second largest and worst-ranked school district in the nation. From grade school in Historic Filipinotown, then John Muir Middle School on 60th & Vermont, to George Washington Preparatory High School on 108th & Normandie. Even did a few years at ELAC when I lived in East LA for a minute, completing the photography, marketing, accounting, and business administration programs, though I never officially graduated.

So why am I a wedding photographer? Honestly, I don't know. It pays the rent I guess. But back in 2003 at the Crenshaw Mall while skimming through magazines at Waldenbooks, I read a Men's Health article ranking photographer as the sexiest job for men, it was all the convincing I needed. I was in 10th grade. A few days later my dad got me a Kodak Easyshare DX6340 from the Best Buy in Culver City, to photograph the local punk and ska scene. Months later I asked my mom for a Nikon film camera because I saw the Nikon F5 in The Lost World: Jurassic Park many years ago when it was fresh in the theater in Huntington Park on Pacific & Gage. At the time, the Nikon N75 was the entry-level Nikon, so that's what she got me from Ritz Camera in the Fox Hills Mall. Coincidentally, I ended up working at Ritz Camera in the Beverly Center not long after, where I learned to print, and color-correct film on Fuji Frontier optical printers and scanners. And with that dead-end salary I was able to get my dream camera, the one I saw on the big screen those many years ago, the Nikon F5. The same one I still use today.

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