viewfromaloft

Anneberg Space for Photography to host lecture on iPhonography

By Helen Ly

A lesson from the storm was also about the use of consumer technology for photojournalism, a moment that has us reconsider the role of cellphone photographer.

And it supplied its own metaphor.

It was photojournalist Benjamin Lowy image of Hurricane Sandy that was featured on the cover of Time magazine, making it the first image from a phone equipped with a camera to be shown on the cover of a major publication.

That became a major benchmark in photojournalism and is the topic of "iPhonography: Innovation in Documentary Storytelling" with Lowy at the Annenberg Space for Photography on Thursday, April 18, 2013 at 6:30 p.m.

Then 33, Lowy was one of five photographers dispatched by Time to capture the storm with an iPhone and Instagram as an experiment, said Kira Pollack, Time’s director of photography, soon after the cover was published.

Early cellphone photography documented trivia moments, barely qualifying as aural-textual-visual. The cover move cell phone photography from being a consumer gadget to a storytelling device.  Lowy is one of the professionals who have used the technology seriously, especially when the urgency of incoming waves are part of the story.

Benjamin Lowy

iPhonography: Innovation in Documentary Storytelling

Thursday, April 18th, 2013 • 6:30-8:00pm

The Annenberg Space for Photography

2000 Avenue of the Stars

Century City, Los Angeles, California.

LA Times Photography Show At Art Walk

 

LA Times Pop-Ups At Art Walk

By Helen Ly

Among the ruckus that is Downtown Art Walk, Joe's Auto Park on the corner of 2nd and Spring became the Los Angeles Time's Pop-Up Gallery "Framework,” an event that joined the one-day-only street performers, craft tables, and temporary gallery space.

In recent years, the viability of Art Walk has come into question after reports of overcrowding, permit issues, and general lack of sales for regularly operating galleries. The LATimes exhibition, its second annual show, featured the paper's visual journalism department and was a needed addition to the night’s art scene.

A Look at Los Angeles in Photos From "The New Yorker"

 

He used to like gloom. Now he loves sun.

The New Yorker visits the studio of Bruce Davidson, the Magnum photographer working on a current series for the magazine “Nature of Los Angeles.”

“It is what trees see and what they can tell us about the way we live today,” he explains. “Los Angeles is often perceived as a place of endless freeways and the grids of busy streets, but it is also a place of exotic and even erotic plant life that thrives in an unlikely habitat. In this quest, I am searching for the confluence of man and nature that interact and struggle to live together in the bright sunshine that is abundant in the city of angels.”

Besides being hypnotized by baked palm trees and the view from behind The Hollywood Sign, Davidson's quiet black-and-white stills contrast nature against concrete. A long shot of a crowded beach with a lone sail boat in the ocean is "the flag of Los Angeles," he said.

Bruce Davidson And The Trees of Los Angeles in The New Yorker  [view]

Photo Tour of the Los Angeles River Profiled at KPCC

Olympic Boulevard Viaduct by Ed Fuentes, taken during an Urban Photo Adventures tour April 2009.

The Los Angeles River is easily a favorite photo-op for professional and amateurs, and a major stop for the Urban Photo Adventure tour as led by former location scouts Mark Indig and Ken Habe. Also helping organize the safari is Maria Lopez. Their recent L.A. River Tour is profiled at  KPCC with video.

The day-long tours begin in the lush, woodsy part of the river near Altadena, where it looks more like the idyllic waterway it once was. Traveling by bus, the tour usually ends downtown, where Indig and Haber show visitors the unique sights along the river’s cement-paved, grittier portion. The tour travels through diverse neighborhoods, running into the occasional transient or tagger. For many of the attendees, being part of a group provided a feeling of safety when visiting parts of the city they wouldn’t normally venture to on their own.

When I took the tour,  a stop included a 100 year old shipyard in San Pedro. The next outing is a full day in the desert with their Salton Sea Photo Tour and Workshop (dates to be announced).

Urban Adventure Tours [view]

 

'Eagle' With Climate Message in Downtown Los Angeles

"Solar Eagle Taking Flight" in Downtown Los Angeles: Photo by John Quigley / Spectral Q. (11.21.10)

'NOT AN EAGLE' SEEN IN 'NOT A CORNFIELD': This eagle flying toward the city is made of 1,000 volunteers with solar photovoltaic film sheets, a collaboration between Spectral Q and 350.org. It was created Sunday afternoon at Los Angeles Historic State Park, one in a series of installations taking place around the world until November 27. During the week, the global climate art projects will be photographed from a satellite and presented at the United Nations Climate Talks being held in Mexico in early December.

ADD 11.24: David Markland was on the ground taking pics.

Two more of these shots, taken from a helicopter, after the jump.

Photography: The Pro and the Con

THE PRO: Photographer Martin Schall enjoyed a tour of non-downtown locations courtesy of LAO's Kevin Roderick. It opened a whole new world to, Martin, the honorary Angeleno:

"First we drove up Sawtelle Avenue — he didn't know the Japanese district, or know of Sawtelle's past as a city of saloons and gambling halls. Good start. It got better when we took him into the VA reservation astride Wilshire Boulevard. Martin jumped out to take pictures of the National Register of Historic Places chapel, the oldest surviving building on Wilshire and occupied by separate Catholic and Protestant chapels, but sadly looking more decrepit than ever. He was delighted to grab shots of other VA buildings, since he hadn't known it was OK to just drive in and explore the federal grounds.

THE CON: Not so fortunate was Discarted, a blogger / photographer cuffed by Los Angeles County Sheriffs.

On October 31, 2009 while on my way home from the Hollywood and Highland area, I was unlawfully detained for 25 minutes by LASD Officers Richard Gylfie #2955 and Bayes #456 for taking two photographs of the turnstiles located at the Hollywood and Western Metro Station — an act that is completely legal and occurred in public space.

His video is bound to be viral, yes, he had a camera rolling. More POV by David Markland.

Politics and Art Link

 

It was with a surprise to discover viewfromaloft is now assigned reading for a few University syallbi concentrating on Latino arts. I may have to backtrack and make sure every post about Chicano art is properly tagged (so to speak).

As it happens, I took some time over the weekend to shoot a few murals in Boyle Heights and see how the restored 1991 mural "Resurrection of the Green Planet" is holding up.

There was another reason to take fresh shots of the Ernesto de la Loza piece, located on César E. Chávez Avenue and Breed Street. The main image of the healer had a familiarity when I first saw it years ago. Now I see why. It is from photographer Graciela Iturbide's 1988 "Curacíon, Juchitán, Oaxaca."

Of course, it's Shepard Fairey's current ongoing battle with AP that has shown photography has its own copyright  protection.

Out of Downtown

Chains in San Pedro shipyard: Ed Fuentes / 2009

I tagged along with Urban Photo Adventures for a day and came back with a number of shots, including this one taken in an 100-year old shipyard in San Pedro.

How to see L.A.

Julius Shulman is still photographing Los Angeles at 97-years old.  I caught up with someone who spent a day on a double decker bus with other photographers following the sun with Shulman.

Julius Shulman's Los Angeles closes January 27 [LAPL]
More on the exhibit [LOA]
Archived NPR interview with Shulman [NPR]

Julius Shulman photo by Josh Spencer / 2008

Catching up with Cousins.

A little catch up for some cousins who have never been to View From a Loft, and who I know are now clicking and searching around posts. You may like these ten shots taken in the year 2007, in particular one second cousin who is in high school and interested in photography, By no means do they tell the whole story of living Downtown, but you can see how interesting it can get around here. These are some of my favorite ones.

Then, take a look at this July 2007 clip from KCBS that featured photos from Ana and Jonthan: Can I Have a Witness?  Oh, and next time I see you, remind me to tell you about some guy named Joel Bloom. He was quite the character.

Above: World War II Veterans Day Parade in Boyle Heights. Howdy:  Huell Howser at 4th and Main, who has become a fixture Downtown.  After the Jump:  Actor Tom Tulley catches himself in mid air during a memorial service for an Arts District Resident.