William Karl Valentine and Mark Hilbert at the Hilbert Museum’s temporary gallery space in Orange, California. 9/23/23

Hilbert Museum - Catching up with Mark Hilbert

September 30, 2023

I had a chance last week to catch up with Mark Hilbert, who with his wife Janet, founded The Hilbert Museum of California Art at Chapman University in Orange, California. The Musem houses their collection of 1,000 20th century paintings documenting California and one of my first blog posts documented a private reception I went to when it opened in 2016. The original space, at 7,000 square feet, was beautiful and it is currently being expanded to 22,000 square feet due to open early next year. The Hilbert collection includes works by Maynard Dixon and many of my favorite California Painters. They opened the Hilbert Temporary gallery off The Circle in Orange to stay engaged with the public as they prepared for the unveiling of their beautiful new museum space.

Mark Hilbert explaining the expansion of his museum which will be completed early in 2024.

The temporary gallery space is obviously only a fraction of the size of the coming new museum, but the space is still decent and located right off the Circle in Orange. The area has great restaurants, eclectic shopping, and is a great place to spend a few hours on a weekend. I’m hopeful that someone maintains this space as a gallery after the new Hilbert Museum opens. I also encourage everyone to visit the Hilbert Temporary while it is up because the works on display are worth the trip to see them.

My Favorite Painting in the Exhibition

Dean Cornwell (1892-1960) “Mission San Antonio de Padua - 1949 Oil on Board

I have heard many photography scholars talk about how a viewer’s past experiences influence how they perceive a photograph. People will connect, or not connect, with a photograph often because of their past experiences, their understanding of the subject matter, or even their believes. Every viewer’s experience is unique, so their response is also unique and that is a good thing. Every person’s opinion has value, even if only just to that person. In talking with Mark he expressed frustration with political viewpoints impacting viewing experiences and an increasing lack of tolerance for differing opinions, I completely agree with him. As in the world, the art world also needs to be inclusive to differing points of view, including conservative ones. The First Amendment is important for all of us.

Dean Cornwell’s 1949 painting Mission San Antonio de Padua really stood out to me and I think may be of value to my blog post readers to explain why so I can expand upon what I wrote above about a viewer’s past experience influencing their reaction to an image.

I have written blog posts before about the Father Serra statue that was in downtown Los Angeles. For me it was an important monument because both Robert Frank and Garry Winogrand had photographed in the 1950’s. I searched for the statue and photographed it on May 29th, 1995, and returned again 25 years later to the day and rephotographed it. Two weeks after photographing the Father Serra statue a second time Indigenous activists invited Los Angeles Times reporters to the statue to witness them tear it down as part of the George Floyd protests. I don’t get how it was connected other than tolerance was being shown to civil unrest at the time.

I am respectful of the opinions that Indigenous Americans have towards colonization and the influence that Catholicism had upon their culture, they have a right to be upset with injustices of the past. But that shouldn’t give them the right to destroy public property or cancel things they don’t believe in. We need to remember history, not erase it. Cancel culture is a slippery slope and should never be tolerated. For me when they tore down the Father Serra statue for that minor LA Times article, they took away my connection to two of my favorite photographers, they destroyed an artifact of California history. They did it all for a soon forgotten moment of attention that was quickly overshadowed by so many other events with the pandemic. Having that experience impacted my thoughts when viewing this painting. I was drawn to the graphic shape of the cross and the stylization of the people in the painting. I took note how the priests were supervising (ordering) the indigenous people doing all the labor to accomplish their task. I also noticed how the indigenous people were colorful and bright and the priests were ashen and less dynamic. I saw elements in this painting supporting the outrage of the indigenous people who tore down my Father Serra statue. For someone of strong Catholic Faith they might see the impact the church had bringing the ministry to the new world. Both viewpoints are valid. No matter what opinion a viewer has the painting is an amazing piece of artwork, wonderfully crafted, and is something to be enjoyed by all. Hopefully it will inspire various dialogues for years to come.

Father Serra Statue two weeks before being torn down by indigenous protestors in 2020 - William Karl Valentine

Selected images in the exhibition at the Hilbert Temporary

Anton Otto Fischer "Peach Harvest"

Phil Dike "California's Best"

Charlie Dye "Big Catch"

Arthur Saron Sarnoff "Supervised and Unsupervised"

Steven Dohanos "Mutually Beneficial Friendship"

Maurice Logan "Ghirardelli's Pioneers"

John Phillip Falter "Schlitz tastes so good"

John William Walter "I own this dream"

Pruett Carter "Depression Kid"

Walt Disney Productions

Atlanta Photography Group - Storytelling 2023 Exhibition - Opening September 19th

September 21, 2023

I am honored that the above print is included in the Storytelling 2023 exhibition which opened this week at the Atlanta Photography Group.

The exhibition celebrates street and documentary photography and was curated by Alyssa Coppelman.

APG shared the following about Coppleman on their website:

Alyssa Ortega Coppelman is an independent photo editor and photobook consultant based in Austin, Texas. She is Art Researcher for the Oxford American magazine; and Archival Researcher on the Emmy-nominated, PBS NewsHour series, Brief But Spectacular. Previously, she was Deputy Art Director at Harper’s Magazine.

About Oxford American

The Oxford American is a nonprofit arts organization and national magazine dedicated to exploring the complexity and vitality of the American South through excellent writing, music, and visual art. Billed as “A Magazine of the South,” it has won four National Magazine Awards and other high honors since it began publication in 1992. The Oxford American is published in partnership with the University of Central Arkansas.

The Image

This is the first time I have exhibited this image which I photographed in June 2022 at the First Annual West Hollywood Pride Parade. I have been concentrating on photographing more aspects of Los Angeles the last few years, partially because I think is important to document where I am from and partially because of the constraints related to the pandemic. I have always found it difficult to photograph in LA, it is not like New York or Chicago or even San Francisco. Los Angeles has so many diverse communities, and is geographically massive, it is really hard to capture everything about this place. People also don’t move around here like in the other big cities, in LA most people drive to where they were going, they don’t walk. Although this is changing some, as a photographer I still find that I have to search for the areas where people are congregating on the street. Hollywood and West Hollywood have always had more foot traffic than other areas and I knew the Pride parade would bring out lots of people for me to photograph so I went to it. I felt it was important to document the LGBTQ+ community because of its population size in Southern California and I was also interested to see how people would interact with each other at one of the first large post pandemic events.

When I saw this person in drag, and the people with them, I knew I was going to have the opportunity to capture a good image. I was first thinking my images would only be of the entourage but as this woman in in the tan hat started to fumble to get her cellphone camera up, I recognized that having her in my frame could take the image to a different level. The woman was so excited by what she saw approaching her that she stepped right in front of me to get her shot. Normally I would say something if someone did this while I was photographing but I wanted her in my frame. I stepped to my left and took my time framing the image. I made a number of exposures and worked to make sure the person in drag was featured, was in focus, and that I could see their image in the woman’s phone. Normally when I photograph on the street I am moving, often photographing from the hip (literally with a Sony RX100 vii), and when I frame an image, it’s quick. The parade setting obviously allowed for a more traditional photographic approach, framing in a viewfinder, but with this image I spent even more time than normal to perfect the frame.

For me, the interaction between the woman and the person in drag is key. The stare down of a dominatrix, the desire of the woman to capture the image and maybe even a desire for other things. The stare was so intense it seemed to single them out from the crowd, like a scene you might see in a movie, where all other noise is silenced and it’s just the two of them alone, albeit in the middle of a crowded parade. The other elements of the image work well too: the laughter of the other woman witnessing the scene, the contrast between the muscular man and other woman crossing the street, and the how the majority of the crowd isn’t even taking notice of their connection. With many of my street photographs I look to document relationships between individuals, and relationships between a person and the whole of a group or society. I love that this image has lots of layers to it, which allows each viewer to have their own experience of seeing it. The image is also a solid document of the event and a segment of the Angelino population.

The Print:

The exhibition print has an image size of 24” x 16” which is the largest sized print I have produced so far in an edition (I have produced some larger prints for commercial clients). This print is on a sheet of 26” x 18” Hahnemȕhle Photo Rag Ultrasmooth paper, framed with a window matt to an external size of approximately 33” x 25”. The print in the exhibition is #4 in an edition of 9 for this image size.

The print was made by Digital Arts Studio in Atlanta who I have been using to produce all my large print editions. Owner Barry Glustoff is fantastic to work with and his lab is one of the top certified printers of Canson and Hahnemȕhle papers in the world. I had Barry produce editions of 19 other images this summer at this size, and he has printed and framed all my photographs for every one of my APG exhibitions. His work is outstanding, and the staff is professional.

The Exhibition:

I have had a chance to see the other images in the exhibition and some early photographs of the installation. The exhibition looks great, some outstanding images, and I am pleased to be showing work with Gwen Julia, Joe Hoyle & Peter Essick again.

BLM Protest - Newport Beach, California (NB DSC 6686 6-06-20)

Picturing Resistance Exhibition at Art Intersection Gallery - Gilbert, Arizona

July 13, 2023

I am proud to announce that legendary photojournalist, and educator, Ken Light has selected three of my photographs for inclusion in the Picturing Resistance Exhibition at Art Intersection Gallery in Gilbert, Arizona. The exhibition runs August 12th through September 30th and includes 59 photographs.

Protest against Governor Newsom’s orders to close the beaches during the Covid Pandemic - Huntington Beach, California (HB DSC 9916 5-01-20)

BLM Protest - Hollywood, California (CA DSC 5652 6-02-20)

I have enjoyed Ken Light’s work for some time, and his books “Texas Death Row” and “Course of the Empire” are in my library. Ken is a great photographer to follow on social media. Not only has he been documenting America, and other parts of the world, for 50 years, but he is also the Reva and David Logan Professor of Photojournalism and curator of the Center for Photography at the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California Berkeley, so he has knowledge of most all current trends in photography today. Ken posted about this exhibition call on social media and I took the opportunity to get my work in front of his eyes. I didn’t know about Art Intersection before the call but in researching it some it looks like Alan Fitzgerald, the Executive Director, is overseeing a good space with a great photography community. I’m glad to have discovered Art Intersection.

With Ken selecting these images for the exhibition it gives me some validation for my pandemic portfolio which makes me very happy. I think mu pandemic era photographs will become an important documentation of what occurred during the pandemic, especially here in Southern California.

Art Intersection Gallery

207 N. Gilbert Road, Suite 201 - Gilbert, Arizona, 85234 480-361-1118

Gallery Hours: Wednesday - Saturday 10 AM to 6 PM

Glasgow Gallery of Photography - "Pandemic" Exhibition Announcement

September 4, 2022

May 12th, 2020 - Manhattan Beach, California - (CA DSC 0391)

I am pleased to announce that the above image was selected for the Pandemic Photography Exhibition which opened this weekend at the Glasgow Gallery of Photography in Glasgow Scotland.

This is the first exhibition for this photograph, and it will be accompanied by another one of my photographs in a separate exhibition in the Lower Gallery at the Glasgow Gallery of Photography during the same time. These exhibitions are my first in Scotland which is now the fourth country I have exhibited prints in.

The Pandemic Exhibition was an international call with a theme of photographers documenting their experiences during the Covid-19 Pandemic. I was excited to see this call, especially while we are still in the tail end (hopefully) of the Pandemic. I have photographed extensively during the Pandemic, making an effort to document as many experiences during it as I possibly could. I am so pleased to be part of an exhibition focusing on the events and hope it is the first of many for pandemic portfolio in the years to come.

The Glasgow Gallery of Photography is a relatively new space that is quickly establishing itself and one of Glasgow’s top photography spaces. I am pleased to be part of this show and the process of working with their staff have been very good. Here is the link to the exhibition.

RSM Orange County Office - Corporate Collection

September 4, 2022

About five years ago, I created and curated the artwork for RSM’s Orange County, California office. RSM is a global professional advisory firm providing technology and financial consulting services, tax and attest services. RSM moved to a new office space during the pandemic, so I removed the work from the walls of the old office and prepared the work for the move. Last month I hung the work on the walls of their new office.

When I started the dialogue with RSM about the project they told me they were looking to modernize their office space and were interested in my photographs. I came up with the concept to only use images only form Orange County to help the office showcase their identity and to be a component of team building. I knew that an entire office of similar images and frames would not work so I curated my work to use various photographic styles. Since I had lived in area for over twenty of years, I had a fair number of images to choose from. I also knew the area well enough to know where to go to photograph to get the images I still might need. The photograph above shows two images I went out looking to photograph once I began this project. These two prints are in the lobby and large conference room which are the focal point of the office upon entering it. It was a great opportunity for me to display some of my images that aren’t in some of my better-known portfolios plus it allowed me to reexamine some images that I hadn’t looked at in a while.

The RSM collection includes 35 framed prints of various sizes, a small aluminum print, and a large (40’x60”) three panel aluminum piece. RSM’s new office has less useable wall space than their old office but my photographs fit better in the modern brand-new building. The installation took about 17 hours including the time it took time figuring out useable wall space and pairings. The new building also had some surprises for me with wall material considering all walls were internal. There were several times where I had to redrill holes or move mounting brackets on frames because I hit steel supports, but it all worked out and by the second day of hanging frames I had my system down again.

Below, one of my favorite images for this office still remains the theatre marquee for the movie “The Accountant”, just a perfect image for this office.

I’ll share some insight into my installation process. I use a T-lock locking system to attach the frames to the wall in commercial settings. I developed a system to speed up the process by making templates out of strips of scrap mounting board. Each template has the positions for the brackets on the frame as well as the corresponding positions for the wall mount clips. I use the template to position the clips on the frames in consistent manner then I use the same template to determine the wall clip positions. By using a level, I just have to determine the center point of each frame on the wall and mark that with painter’s tape. Most of the frames in the office were hung with their center point being 63” which is higher than museum standard but visually it fit the space better. So, for each frame I would measure the wall at the floor level to find the center point. I then measured up to where I wanted the top of the frame to be (63” + 1/2 the frame height) and that determined my center point. I lined the template’s marked center point with the mark on the wall and aligned it with my level. I then marked the two drill holes and I the frame would be aligned. I found it best to mark the bottom T-lock drill hole with the frame on the wall and tracing the edge of the lock bracket on the bottom of the frame. Aligning the T-lock is the hardest part, and more than once I was a fraction off, but luckily usually close enough a hammer could correct the alignment. I got smart the second day and put all my tools on a cart to speed up the process.

This panel below was the prominent piece in the old office’s lobby. These panels are each 40” x 60” aluminum prints. The old office had a slightly curved wall which was a problem to hang on. We chose a flat interior wall in the new office which was much simpler to deal with. These pieces hang on strip of grooved wood and then I secure the bottom of them with a removeable mounting adhesive. Surprisingly they are from a single image my lab cropped into a panorama and then made three prints out of it. The camera was a Canon PowerShot G12 with a 10MB one inch sensor. It showcases the incredible capabilities of digital technology, especially considering this is now old technology. The image is of the Balboa Peninsula looking South towards Corona del Mar and Laguna Beach. When my son was a freshman in high school his PE class was surfing, and it was first thing in the morning. I would park near their surfing spot then walk the stand with my camera until his class was over. This image came from one of my walks.

And finally, the of the office exterior. RSM is one of the first tenants in this building and the entire complex is still under construction. The modern design of the space really fits photography artwork, I am proud of how well the collection looks here.

Brianna Kupfer was stabbed to death inside her work on 1-13-22, the suspect was arrested on 1-19-22 in Pasadena several hours before I photographed this memorial at the murder scene.

Brianna Kupfer Murder Scene - 326 N. La Brea, Los Angeles

January 22, 2022

I remember standing over a guy once who had just been shot in his apartment. There was a drive-by on the street out front and instead of taking cover he went to the bedroom window to look and caught what appeared to be a stray round meant for someone else. He was a “Veterano” so I was somewhat surprised he did that, I expected he would know better. We had arrived on scene right after it happened, and paramedics were close behind us. Medically there wasn’t anything I could do for him beside encourage him to keep fighting to stay alive. His breathing was shallow, and he was not saying anything. His color started to fade and by the time the paramedics transported him his skin was turning grey, I knew he was going to die, and he did soon after reaching the hospital. I have seen a few murder victims die; most I guess were in shock because they were not saying much. I have also seen someone who was shot and made it, he was scared and calling out for his mother as he was laying there on the ground. Watching someone in the process of dying an unnatural death is surreal. I’ve sensed some people giving in to their wounds and death’s call, while seeing others fighting with all they had to survive. I have sensed fight, fear, regret, loneliness, and calm witnessing the dying process.

I went to the Croft House to photograph Brianna Kupfer’s memorial because I saw it as opportunity to document an incident which represents our society today, raging crime and the deterioration of safety in our communities.

What happened to Brianna showcases everything that has and is going wrong with the new approach to the American criminal justice system in a supposed “woke” society. It is beyond unacceptable that Shawn Laval Smith, the murder suspect, was still roaming the streets after at least 11 previous arrests and his obvious mental health issues. At a minimum he should have been in a mental health facility years ago, instead, somehow, he was most likely shipped to California from South Carolina so they could get rid of their problem quickly. Based on all his criminal history Law Enforcement did their job, they arrested him and brought him before the courts. The system from there obviously did not do their part by putting Mr. Smith in some type of custody where he could not harm others. Every day there are incidents of violent attacks on innocent people by unstable persons living on our streets. This past week the victims included a nurse at a Los Angeles bus stop and an accounting consultant on a New York subway platform, plus who knows how many others.

I feel my images from the Croft House accurately convey my feelings about Brianna’s murder and allow for thought and interpretation by other viewers. I see them as powerful documents of what happened, even though they do not actually document the criminal act or crime scene. I hope these photographs allow some viewers the ability to consider the reality of such a horrific loss and contemplate society’s approach to public safety moving forward. I think there are many layers for the viewers to deal with in these images.

When I photograph, I try and be respectful of the people within my frames and not exploitative. With an incident like this, I was looking for images with deeper meaning, not just a press image where I was looking for dramatic shot to illustrate a story before moving on.

Here are some of my thoughts on specific images:

The wide-angle view of the entire store worked well. The lead image in this blog captured how intimate this furniture store is by documenting its scale. I used a 14-24mm Nikon Aspherical lens for this since the sidewalk is so narrow and news vans were parked all in front of Croft House. For me I see the outside of the building with all the big windows as a location I would never expect a violent crime to occur. The wide-angle lens also captured the volume of flowers well. In the image above the young man walking past the wanted poster of Smith symbolizes much of society for me. Something horrific happened here, I want everyone to take notice and be enraged about it, but this man appears to be walking by as if he is oblivious to that fact. I imagine him saying to himself: “Oh well something bad happened here, thankfully it wasn’t me, bad things happen all the time, just accept it, I have things to do, it’s nothing I have to deal with.”. Obviously, I don’t know this young man’s thoughts, nor do I know if he has already walked by here multiple times and has already stopped to experience the moment. His presence in the frame, although a documented fact, is really only symbolic of life going on and people passing by. I also think his attire helps with the documentation of the area and the people who live here.

This image is intense for me. The arrangement is so beautiful, as was Brianna Kupfer, the flowers are representative of her. The interior of the store is organized and clean. There is order in the display and the designs of the pieces are awesome, the space looks cool, normally I would love to check out. But then there is the reality that order was shattered by the blade of the murderer’s knife. The reflection of the news van and the wanted poster in the window tell the horrific truth. Having seen the coverage of the murder on television I know the suspect had walked right where I was now standing to make this photograph. Perhaps he peered into this same window before he entered Croft House. He interacted with Brianna in such a way that she became so scared of him she texted a friend about him, he then savagely murdered Brianna, before comely walking out the back door of the store and North up the ally. The most chilling part is the rear door of the store is so clearly visible in this image and positioned just to the left of the wanted flyer for the suspect. This image brings to my mind the terror Brianna must have endured at the end of her life, how alone she must have felt.

I assume this image above is pretty obvious for most viewers. Televised news is so influential today. Here I have the production crew for the live shot, masks documenting the period, and mobile equipment which reminds the viewer that the crew is only on scene temporarily before moving on to the next story. Society’s focus on this event will quickly fade, and then I think of her family who will carry the scars of this loss forever. I am angered with the thought that victims, and their families are not the focus today. The slight view of the memorial in the background wanted poster giving context to their story. The reporters practiced speaking their copy while the crews checked their lighting and camera angles. They were doing their jobs, they were not being disrespectful, but the reality was obvious this wasn’t personal for them, it was just another tough story, it probably has to be that way in their business. Maybe this image also represents public desensitization to crime.

A few more images of the news crews, I specifically liked the woman casually walking by NBC’s Angie Crouch as she prepared for her segment, again symbolic of the acceptance of the reality of our society today.

I personally have no respect for District Attorney Gascon so when I found this sign here when I arrived, I was happy someone else had made this statement. It is good that there is an element of anger along with celebrating the Brianna’s life and mourning her loss. The old metal security gate is also an important element in all these images, adds to the layers.

The powerful element in this image is subtle but strong. Just before I photographed it someone came up and asked a couple questions about the murder. He seemed like he didn’t want to believe such a violent act could have happened there, I assume he lived in that Hancock Park neighborhood. He read the wanted poster, then put his hands up to the glass so he could get a better view of the store’s interior. It was obvious he was trying to comprehend what had happened, I assume he felt compassion for the victim and quite possibly fear for his own well-being. It would have been a great photograph of him peering in the window, but I didn’t take it. I guess I wanted to let him have his moment to himself. The smudges on the window are a good representation of everyone who had stopped and peered inside. I am sure many were fearful they would see a bloody crime scene but at the same time they were too curious to not look. From that point I can imagine people thinking thank God that wasn’t me or my daughter.

I liked the image of the vigil flyer; it is a simple document that gains value with the Christian candles. The note in the right-side image stood out to me. It isn’t the typical card you write on when you send flowers. It’s a page ripped from a small personal notebook. I don’t know any facts about who wrote this, but I can envision someone who stopped to view the memorial feeling the emotion of the loss and having a need to do something to share with others how they felt. For me the note is so genuine and personal, I love it, especially with the shapes and forms of the image, the beautiful, delicate flowers, and their contrast to the iron security gate. More layers of interpretation with this image than are initially obvious.

This may be the most powerful of my images that day, even though it was such an obvious image. I was lucky to be there when the sunlight was at a perfect angle to illuminate Brianna’s portrait and the wanted flyers taped to the window. The light also gave me interesting hard shadows in the store with an interesting element of a reflection of a security fence in the top of the frame; for me those elements allude to the darkness of the crime. Again, the staging of the portrait reminds me how unexpected it was to have a homicide occur at a location like Croft House. I don’t know who photographed the actual portrait, it is a solid portrait which I assumed captured Brianna’s personality. I felt a little weird photographing someone else’s photograph but with all the other elements in my frame I knew it was totally appropriate.

Hopefully I will find fewer things like this to photograph in the future and that I will never have to fully comprehend the pain Brianna Kupfer’s family is experiencing now. I will keep documenting my world because that is how I experience life and I trust these images will also have an impact on everyone who views them.

Immersive Van Gogh

August 10, 2021

On July 31st I saw the Immersive Van Gogh Exhibit when it was in Anaheim, California. The creators claim the exhibit has been seen by over 2 million visitors in Paris and had a sold-out run in Toronto and was headed to a “super-secret location in the heart of LA next!”

The Immersive Van Gogh website described the experience as this:

“Lose yourself in 500,000 cubic feet of monumental projections animating Vincent van Gogh’s oeuvre. Wander through entrancing, moving images that highlight brushstrokes, detail, and color – truly illuminating the mind of the genius.

You will be immersed in Van Gogh’s works – from his sunny landscapes and night scenes to his portraits and still life paintings. The installation includes the Mangeurs de pommes de terre (The Potato Eaters, 1885), the Nuit étoilée (Starry Night, 1889), Les Tournesols (Sunflowers, 1888), and La Chambre à coucher (The Bedroom, 1889), and so much more.

Astonishing in scale and breathtakingly imaginative, you will experience Van Gogh’s art in a completely new and unforgettable way.

The exhibit is designed and conceived by Massimiliano Siccardi, with soundtrack by Luca Longobardi, who both pioneered immersive digital art experiences in France.”

I have seen Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” at the Museum of Modern Art and more of his paintings at several different museums over the years. You cannot compare the experience of seeing a painting in person, examining the texture of the brush strokes, the combinations of color which create contrast and dimension, seeing the scale the artist chose to an event like this. So often when I see a painting, I sense the presence of the artist. The painting itself and how it was crafted is a document that tells us more about the artist than the subject matter of the artwork. You can’t compare the two experiences. But I will admit there was value in Immersive Van Gogh. I learned some things about the painter I did not know, and it was interesting to see his work reinterpreted in the manner. I also recognize that many of the patrons probably haven’t seen much of Van Gogh’s work in person and for them this was a good means to get more people exposed to his work. It was an enjoyable experience, especially because I was able to photograph it. I love photographing people in museums and galleries interacting with work, always find it interesting. One thing to note the commercials I saw for this made it appear you moved from room to room experiencing something different in each room, that is not the case. You enter one room and walk past some monitors with text describing Van Gogh and his work. The you enter a larger room where the Immersive experience is. The experience is a loop presentation of Van Gogh’s work that last 45 minutes. You enter the room at any point in the loop and leave whenever you are ready.

I wonder what Vincent would think about the “Immersive experience” and the revenue is has generated for its creators. Hopefully he would just be pleased that more people gained an appreciation of his work.

Father Serra Statue - Los Angeles

July 12, 2020

I have written posts before about how Garry Winogrand is my favorite photographer. I saw his MoMA retrospective in 1988, his SFMoMA retrospective, the entire Women are Beautiful exhibition at Pier 24 and my library has lots of Winogrand books. One of my favorite books is John Szarkowski’s “Winogrand - Figments from the Real World”, and it was that book which led me to me to photograph the Father Serra statue pictured above.

I have gone through the book many times over the years, and early on I found something intriguing. That both Winogrand and Robert Frank had photographed the same Father Serra statue in Los Angeles in 1955. Neither of them knew one another but both stumbled on to this same statue, in the same year, while exploring America, and independent of one another. A statue that wasn’t famous and was in an unassuming part of Los Angeles. Below are their images from Szarkowski’s book.

Back then I decided that I also wanted to photograph the statue, maybe as a right of passage as a photographer, maybe just out of interest to see how my image would compare to their images. Using the two images I had a good idea where the statue was and I decided to photograph it on my mom’s birthday, May 29th, in 1995. I had a feeling it might become an important photograph for me so I chose a memorable date, and there was no rush since the statue wasn’t going anywhere. On the way home from Pasadena, after seeing my mom, I headed to Sunset to photograph the statue. When I got there not only was the statue not there, that part of Sunset Boulevard had been renamed and the streets were reconfigured. I got out my Thomas Brothers map (iPhones and mobile internet access did not exist yet) and began searching. After driving around for a few minutes I located the statue a couple blocks away in what is now called Father Serra Park at N. Alameda and Los Angeles Street, across from Union Station. Having a new location my background options were completely different. I decided on photographing the statue from behind, looking West, with the sun creating a good silhouette of the cross. I included a couple palm trees to frame it and the 110 Freeway on ramp sign because it said “Pasadena” & “Hollywood” on it. I actually liked my image better than theirs, and a print hangs in my house still (CA - 087 #17).

For whatever reason I started thinking about this image in this past May and wondered how long ago I had photographed it. I checked, it was in 1995, and I then realized 2020 was the 25th Anniversary. I decided to photograph the statue again on my mom’s birthday. On May 29th my son and I headed to Los Angeles on the way to Pasadena. We parked at Union Station, masked up, and headed over to photograph Father Serra.

The palm trees were gone and the tree behind it had grown so much it engulfed the statue. The freeway sign had been moved and there was now a fence around the statue area, I assume to keep the homeless from camping under it. I tried all the angles above and I think the image with Los Angeles City Hall in the background was the best image now.

As I was finishing up we heard sirens, lots of them, and saw several news helicopters South of us. We began walking towards City Hall and saw multiple LAPD patrol cars headed to City Hall and LAPD’s Headquarters, the George Floyd Protests of Los Angeles were beginning.

I photographed some in the area and found the protesters were much farther South and moving away from us. They were attempting to take over LA Live and Staples Center. Because of the distance and not knowing the situation down there we headed back to the car and went to see my mom.

As we all know the protests and civil unrest have continued, and have expanded to encompass so many more things. On June 20th , sixty indigenous activists used the current climate to stage a protest at the Father Serra statue, The activists invited the Los Angeles Times to come document the Father Serra statue being toppled and the Times accepted. The activists pulled the statue down in a ceremony, poured red paint on the head, spray painted “ACAB” (All Cops Are Bastards) on the torso, and cut the cross from his hand. They left the statue afterward but kept the cross as symbolic souvenir I assume. I have no idea how they linked the anti police narrative to Father Serra but I guess it made sense to someone with a can of spray paint.

25 Days after had I re-photographed the Father Serra statue (my 25th Anniversary of photographing it) I returned and photographed the empty pedestal.

This man saw me photographing where the statue had been and came over to start a conversation and take his own photographs. He said as a kid he had gotten in trouble at school for talking about Father Serra’s atrocities against indigenous people instead of talking about how the missions helped to develop California. No idea if that was true but he was polite enough and I have absolutely no problem with his viewpoint. I respect his argument and I was not here in the 1700’s to see first hand what the conditions were like at the Missions.

What I do have a problem with is 60 people deciding to destroy something that belongs to an entire community of millions of Angelinos . We can not accept acts such as this to be considered an exercise of one’s “freedom of speech” if we are to maintain a Democratic society. If the activists wanted to petition for an Indigenous Statue to be placed next to the Father Serra statue to tell the full story, great!, I would support that 100%. If the public display of the likeness of a man who died 236 years ago is hurtful to the majority of the community, and the community decides to have the statue removed to a secluded place where it won’t offend people, then I am fine with that too. I am also not writing about this to defend Father Serra or the Catholic Church, nor to criticize people who exercise their First Amendment Right appropriately. But you can’t destroy history, no one rights any wrongs with toppling a monument. In this case, for me as a photographer, that statue had so much more meaning than the person it depicted because of the people who have photographed it. Its gone now, and what gain did that group get besides a brief moment in the news spotlight which has already faded, especially in today’s world of constant conflict and health worries.

SEE THESE PHOTOS ON MY 2020 WEBSITE