Photographer Robert Yager has lived in Los Angeles since 1986, and he's been photographing members of a gang called the West Side Playboys for nearly 10 years.

His extraordinary pictures of gang members, their friends and families show the inner workings of a culture most Americans find terrifying — and which the Playboys themselves are prepared to defend with their lives.

TIME.com spoke with Yager about his relationship with the gang members, and about the life he's glimpsed beyond the guns and the violence.

When did you take the photographs?

Over a few weeks earlier this year. I was working with Terry McCarthy for TIME.

These are pretty intimate pictures. How did you gain the trust of gang members?

I've been photographing this gang since 1992, and it was just a long, slow process.

I first started going down to the neighborhood in January 1992, and I kept going back every week — and a mutual trust evolved. Then back in 1994, when there was a lot of trouble with the Rampart CRASH unit (Anti gang police).

I was a finalist for the W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fund Award and was asked to photograph "everyday violence" So one element that I tried to take pictures of was the police with the gang members, but the police would harass me and threaten me whenever I'd try to photograph them.

Then in 1995, I was at a birthday party for one of the gang members, and I saw a group of CRASH police in riot gear come into the party and start beating people. So I took a few photos - but the police hit me in the neck and took away my camera. They took me down to the police station and destroyed the film. It's really too bad, — it would have been great to have pictures of the Rampart CRASH police beating up the gang members.

Have you ever been afraid while you've been taking these pictures?

Yeah, a few times; Once we were going to a party in South Central and we pulled up next to three cars full of members of a rival gang. Someone saw a gun, and said "Quick, pull off" so we hit a side street with gunshots ringing out behind us.

What about when you were with the Playboys? Have you ever been afraid around them?

One member, who was kind of unpredictable, put a revolver in my stomach and said, "Give me your camera." None of the other guys said anything. He seemed serious, so I gave him my camera, and he looked at me and basically said that I had the gang's trust and warned me not to betray them. Then he gave the camera back.

What is the gang's culture like?

It's pretty intense. They're extremely loyal to each other, with their own rules and codes that they're meant to abide by.

The guys who join seem to have rebelled against family and school before they even join the gang. There's a lot of boredom around, with a lack of opportunity, — so they look for the opposite in extreme highs and camaraderie. They'll go looking for trouble with rival gangs. Like most teens, the guys are always on the prowl for girls to pick up.

Some of the cultural expressions within the gang culture I find really interesting, like the art, the murals, the tattoos and hand signs and the rules.

Are girls gang members as well? Or are they sort of accessories for the guys?

The girls are definitely gang members as well. The gang has different cliques within it. Girls have their own cliques just as the guys do. In the end, though, they all stick together.

Do girls get treated differently in the gang?

Often, there's a lot of extra pressure on the girls because they feel the need to prove themselves more. And it used to be that the girls would get away with a lot more - if the police showed up, they were more likely to let the girls go while the guys would get searched or questioned. That's not so much the case anymore.

Was there something — a moment or a revelation — about this project that stands out for you?

For me, the main thing was that doing this project for TIME showed how much the Playboys trusted me. I mean, I could bring a writer along to document their lives. At first they didn't trust (TIME writer Terry McCarthy), but I vouched for him, and that made him safe in their eyes.

How long have you lived in Los Angeles?

I moved here in 1986 and have been here ever since. I left England in 1985, and lived in Mexico City for a year, where I learned to speak Spanish and did a lot of street photography.

I imagine the Spanish has been helpful in this project.

Yeah — it meant I didn't have to get paranoid if I was with gang members and they started speaking Spanish. It also meant I could communicate with parents who were nervous about what I was doing. I could speak with them and relate on a personal level.

Just like any parents, they're looking out for their kids' interests. Maybe they don't want the kids to be labeled as gang members, especially down the road when the kids might want to put this behind them.

I found that most of the kids are proud of who they are — and that actually frustrates the police, who feel that photographers like myself are romanticizing and encouraging the gangs. I'm just trying to document many elements of their lives and culture.

Can you just show up and hang out with the Playboys, or do you call someone first and say, "Hey, I'm coming around?"

I can show up in the neighborhood any time, but sometimes no one's around. It depends on what night it is. Often, they'll call me and say, we're having a barbecue, come on down, or we're having a party, or going to the shooting range. Some of the members are artists as well; I've seen murals they've done that are amazing. They, especially, get what I'm doing —and I think they appreciate it.