Legendary OC photojournalist Leo Hetzel has been capturing photographs of roadside memorials for decades, and shares a portfolio of photos he's taken at sites of accidents on beautiful if deadly Santiago Canyon Road, County Highway 18.  Longtime surfer, Modjeska Canyon resident, and volunteer firefighter, Citric Acid is proud to feature his work. Read Hetzel's story at the bottom of this page.

About the Artist

I have lived in Modjeska Canyon for 48 years.  I grew up in Long Beach and started surfing in 1958. I still make an attempt to surf.  I became interested in photography and took a class in it at Long Beach State in my senior year.  The main reason I wanted to learn about photography was so I could take surf pictures.  In 1967 I started hitchhiking south on the San Diego freeway, headed for Mexico with my cameras and a lot of film, mostly black and white, because it was cheaper.  I became more interested in taking pictures of people than surf photos.  It took me nine months to hitchhike to Peru.  In Peru I had very little money but met an American who asked me if I knew how to glass surfboards, I did, so he hired me.  When we didn’t have too many orders for boards I would hitchhike up into the Andes to take photographs of the people and country.  After Peru I lived in Chile and Brazil and all around South America, and started getting freelance jobs taking photographs, mostly for American companies which were publishing textbooks about South America.  

I had always wanted to become a professional photographer, but had no idea how to do it and meanwhile was making a living taking photographs.  After five years in Latin America I travelled to Europe with a Yugoslavian lady, Marija, with whom I'd fallen in love in Peru.  After several months living in Yugoslavia we went to Sweden, where we were married. I had a few freelance photo jobs in Europe, and spent a lot of time in Spain.  We drove across the Sahara Desert in a two-cylinder Citroen van and spent ten months traveling in West Africa taking photographs.

After being away for seven years Marija and I returned to California and bought a home in Modjeska Canyon and had two kids. I got a job for the Long Beach Press-Telegram as a photojournalist, where I worked for twenty-eight years, a job that I loved. Being a photojournalist is always interesting, but not always fun.  Shortly after arriving in Modjeska I joined the Modjeska Canyon Volunteer Fire Dept.  After thirty-five years as a volunteer fireman, I retired.  I just couldn’t run up and down the mountains dragging fire hoses any longer. During the years as a volunteer there were many bad accidents on Santiago Canyon Road that the Modjeska volunteers went to. It is a very dangerous road. For twenty-eight years I drove on Santiago Canyon Road five days a week in my red 1957 VW Bug, and had a few close calls.  The speed limit is 55 MPH. The road is not a freeway. Over the years I have been taking photographs of what I guess could be called memorials for the people who have died on the road.  If people see these photographs, maybe they will be a little more careful driving on Santiago Canyon Road; at least I hope so.  I think these photographs probably represent only a small percentage of the people who have died on the road.