54ghosts x Oaklandish: East Oakland

We're stoked to present another collection with 54ghosts! This series celebrates East Oakland. Shop the collection.

Artist statement by Alex Hernandez aka 54ghosts: this collaboration is inspired and made up of three shirts depicting what I grew up seeing during my childhood in East Oakland. The first photo entitled “Power” is a literal take on the electrical poles that a lot of us grew up with and attempted climbing. “Kick Up Dust” is a metaphorical take on my Oakland childhood, with the image of some young ones shutting down the 580 freeway on their bikes not giving a f@*k. The final design “Free Fall” centers on a shot of a falling gun in an extravagant stairwell, and represents what for some youth in Oakland was an inevitable fate. Coming up, sometimes someone having a gun was not as surprising as the hands you’d see holding them. This is for all y’all. 

Video by Luis Montoya, modeled by Ant and Kayleen!