Erick Medel doesn’t just take pictures, he sews them. Through a unique process involving denim and brightly colored threads, Medel documents through photography his Boyle Heights neighborhood in Los Angeles and finds the most mundane city scenes to then transform into highly detailed works that come from his sewing machine rather than oil paint. On the occasion of his solo show, Vidas, on view at Charlie James Gallery, we talked to Erick about his relationship with his neighborhood as he painstakingly recreates it with thread.