Florida Boulevard (US 190) in Baton Rouge, Louisiana — possibly one of the city's ugliest urban strips, yet representative of the marginal entrepreneurialism I’ve seen worldwide. The thoroughfare runs from the Mississippi River in downtown Baton Rouge nearly to the Mississippi–Louisiana state line. What interests me most is the uncanny sense of being back in Libreville, Gabon; Rishikesh, India; or Harlesden, England — places where, like here, I am the Western foreigner. I was surprised to see in India giant billboards advertising religious gurus and their ashrams just as we see similar ads on billboards in America advertising Christian churches and their pastors.

Many communities line Florida Boulevard: Black American, Latin American, African, Middle Eastern, and Vietnamese. The businesses mirror familiar human activities everywhere: used cars and repair shops, tire shops, markets and eateries, places of worship (Christian and Buddhist), apparel stores, wig and nail salons. When I drive to Tam Bao Buddhist Temple, La Morenita Meat Market, or Vinh Phat Market, I feel as if I’ve left America — and that’s refreshing: a place free of xenophobia and provincialism. Though outwardly ugly, informed by my experience of other countries the strip is fascinating, colorful, inviting, and transporting. These photographs were taken before the Trump administration deployed ICE agents in New Orleans (12/25). This is an ongoing project.