Born in East Los Angeles, raised on the streets of Cypress Park and Highland Park in the seventies where he made the stretch of the Los Angeles River and The Arroyo Seco Freeway his playground. 

During those formative years, Chris was captured alongside his brother Miguel by the lens of Gusmano Cesaretti while they observed local artist Chaz Bojorquez at work. This photo will later appear on the cover of the coveted original version of Street Writers.

When originally published, copies of Street Writers made their way through the halls of neighborhood libraries in Northeast Los Angeles.  This is where Chris first noticed the book. Pages had been torn out and replaced with photocopy versions by kind librarians. This sparked his interest and the idea to one day remake this one of kind book with a properly sewn and bound cloth cover making it a true archival piece.

Chris will later reunite with Gusmano to work on feature films and commercials as a photographer and location scout. Eventually going full circle and launching their own publishing company with a focus on making photography books.

"Imagine how one photo can change your perspective on life and take you to greater heights”
–– Chris Gutiérrez