NEW YORK, NY.- Hollywood Boulevard: 1969-1972 is the powerful new photo-narrative by Dennis Feldman, a painfully human character study of social identity and performance. Feldman captured the gritty side of this most famous of streets before going on to a noted career as a director and screenwriter.

For three years, Feldman repeatedly walked an eight-block stretch from Hollywood and Vine to the Chinese Theater, called the Walk of Fame, where people flocked to gaze at a sidewalk full of terrazzo stars inlaid with the names of famous (and no longer famous) entertainers. He became obsessed with photographing the characters that gathered there, drawn to the world of stardom, parading their self-made identities -- macho and gay, masculine and feminine, bikers and hippies -- modeled after American archetypes molded by the entertainment industry and the 60s social revolution.

"I’m driven to photograph places where, as they say, 'the veil between the seen and the unseen is thinnest.'”, writes Feldman, “On Hollywood Boulevard you could see the cracks in the performance: the face through the mask—the truth through the pretense—the doubt through the confidence—the little boy or girl in the adult they became. That’s what I mean by the veil was thinnest. Hollywood is a notorious heartbreaker where only a few dreams come true.”

Patterns of symbolism and themes emerge through the progression of Feldman’s large-format, black-and-white portraits -- intimidation and invitation, bravado and insecurity, hope and doubt, exuberance and sadness, desperation and joy, black and white, parental love and the molding of a child’s identity. These themes repeat themselves in different contexts in a movement of ideas and emotions that builds to a climax -- a woman in heavy makeup, suitcases at her feet - she seems at her wits end, all dressed up with nowhere to go.

“For almost a century, people have brought their dreams to a place, an industry and a fantasy called Hollywood. But the gates to the factories where they make the dreams are guarded day and night. And admission to the real Hollywood is by invitation only. Hollywood, the Boulevard is open to everybody.” – Dennis Feldman

Dennis Feldman (born 1946) studied photography at Harvard College where he was introduced to the work of Walker Evans, Robert Frank, and Fredrick Sommer - all of whom were to become his mentors. He attended the Yale School of Art and Architecture, where Walker Evans was his professor. Six of Feldman’s photographs are in the permanent collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

In 1974 and 75, he traveled for eleven months to 49 of the 50 United States to photograph for the book AMERICAN IMAGES, which was chosen one of the ten best photo books of 1977 by the New York Times.

Dennis Feldman has taught Photography and the History of Photography at Boston University, San Francisco City College, and UCLA. He has lectured in the Language of Photography at Harvard and Deer Island Penitentiary.

He is also a screenwriter and producer of a number of successful Hollywood films.