Welcome to Huntington Beach: Portrait series highlights the people that make 'Surf City USA' unique

"Welcome to Huntington Beach is a series of street portraits I shot over a year while I lived in Huntington Beach, CA", Grippa explains. "I'm originally from the east coast, so as an outsider it was exciting to discover what made 'Surf City USA' so unique.

"There are so many different types of people there. Surfers, hippy stoners, hillbillies, religious evangelicals. It felt like an amalgamation of the entire country in a beach town. The fact that I was living there in 2016, during a turbulent election year, made it all the more interesting.

"How do these people get along? What makes them all want to be in the same place? The weirdness and unpretentiousness of the people in Huntington Beach is what drove me to keep shooting."

Grippa is a filmmaker and photographer based in New York. He earned a BA from Rutgers University and an MFA from the American Film Institute. His feature film credits as a director include Running Funny, starring Tony nominated actor Louis Zorich, and Half Brother, starring Stephen Plunkett and Casey Biggs. You can check out more of his work at anthonygrippa.com and on Instagram.

All images courtesy of Anthony Grippa