Impermanence

My search for inspiration...

2012-01-29T19:25:00.000-08:00

Over the holiday break I decided to make a commitment to attend the Iris Night Lecture series at the Annenberg Space for Photography...in Century City. They're every Thursday night and the tickets (which are free) go on "sale" every Wednesday at noon. It has been a very mixed bag so far.

On the plus side there's the location...it's behind the Creative Artist's Agency building, which is kinda cool. There must be some government offices there as well, because a few weeks ago there was a ton of very clean-shaven guys in black suits and sunglasses (no lie) speaking into their sleeves. A visit by Joe Biden prompted that one. Other pluses are: it's free, the people running the place are very friendly, you get to meet a bunch of photographers - and where else can you park in Century City for a buck?

So, what's my problem? Maybe the subject (the Digital Darkroom) of the current series is bringing out an emphasis on technique - but many of the lectures have left me wondering if anyone thinks about content anymore. One photographer was very inspiring for the first 5 minutes, then it started to repeat itself in a strange loop on how everyone's an artist and that "art" is just the expression of a burst of creativity. I'm sorry, but that's not really true. Perhaps everyone's an artist, but not everything we do is art. Art (with the capital A) is not just about creativity - I should know - I'm creative as hell, but most of the time I fully understand I'm not making Art. At the end of the pep-talk, he then just talked about his technique...

So, I'm not finding true inspiration yet, but maybe next week?

A gallery returns to education

2012-01-25T10:10:00.000-08:00

Last night I attended the opening of the Long Beach City College Art Gallery. We had lost the gallery last year in one of the seemingly endless rounds of cuts to education. It was hard for the school to both justify and understand the importance of the gallery to our Art Program - but (with the help of many behind the scenes) we were able to negotiate its return.

There was an interesting air of hope and excitement last night and I watched the students crowd the space to see the work. Our returning curator, Habib Kheradyar, started with a faculty show, this image is actually as the crowd was starting to thin. Habib is both an artist and the founder of Post "a subversive venue for contemporary art" in Los Angeles and we're very fortunate to have him back. You can follow the gallery on Facebook.

What I've learned is that, for a gallery (and maybe art) to survive, it's important to find ways to make everyone care about it - not just the artists involved. It seems like so much of art is about exclusion, you often have to know about art just to understand what you're looking at - and I have no problem with that - but it occurs to me that the flip side is a public that does not value art or its institutions. So, my goal is to create a stronger culture of art at LBCC and to find ways to make the gallery valuable to the entire school.

The following image is from an installation that's behind the far wall you see in the above image. This work is by Gretchen Potts, one of our faculty members. I was so taken by the quality of the light she created. I'd love to see this on an even larger scale.

Saint Monica

2012-01-22T15:32:00.001-08:00

Out at Palisades Park this morning to visit Saint Monica's statue - turns out that's where Santa Monica get's its name. I'm shooting this location for my Multiple Viewings series - I grew up in Westwood and my mother, who was studying art at UCLA, spent a lot of time painting on the pier. The best part of being a kid was the freedom I had to explore and my travels would range from under the pier to the pathways leading back up to the park.

It was cold this morning, had to go get coffee and warm my fingers up before I could shoot (with the real camera...).

Park Manor Hotel Part 2

2011-11-15T06:31:00.000-08:00

One of the interesting elements at the Park Manor is its relationship to the gay and lesbian community. On the bottom floor there's a great restaurant with a fabulous lounge singer and I believe Fridays are "fun" night at the roof-top club - with a "elevatrix" running the elevator - it's a very energized scene. So how will this fit with the conservative time-share company that's bought it...who knows?

The Park Manor Hotel, San Diego - Part 1

2011-10-07T17:02:00.000-07:00

A year ago, I attended the Society for Photographic Education's Western Conference in San Diego. We ended up staying at the Park Manor Hotel - which strangely enough was designed by Bertram Goodhue - who also was the original architect of Val Verde - small world. I loved the "old world" qualities of the hotel so much that we stayed here again last summer. Much to my dismay, I found that the Hotel has been sold and is in the process of being turned into a timeshare. Renovations are happening as we speak. So, in a last attempt to remember what was, I've done a small photo-essay on a unique landmark of gracious living.

2011-08-11T14:37:00.000-07:00

Just off of San Diego is an island called Coronado, where the famous hotel is (more to come) and I stumbled on this great example of "house proud" - few photographers can resist a sunflower and that includes me.

2011-07-29T14:11:00.000-07:00

This weekend we drove from the foothills to the ocean - Pasadena to Long Beach - by surface streets. Occasionally, when I can't take the traffic anymore, I bail on my work commute and end up on the streets of Downey, South Gate, Huntington Park, Compton and Highland Park to name just a few of the communities along the 710 and 5 fwys. The problem on those days is that I'm beat to the core and just want to get home, but I do pay attention and mark locations I want to return to, sometimes to sample the food, sometimes because of the signage...

2011-06-12T09:25:00.000-07:00

Vintage trailering is a bit of an addiction - for some it's a lifestyle, for others it's an excuse to buy back their childhood. It's open to all and for a few weekends a year it's a chance to slow down and step out of the ordinary.

Domesticity and the art of everyday objects

2011-05-10T09:00:00.000-07:00

My own "revisiting" project

2011-01-06T17:32:00.000-08:00

Over the winter break I headed home (strange how where we spent our teen years is always home) and spent time shooting. Each visit I make a pilgrimage to a series of locations - part of which is seeing how they've changed since the last time, but these are also locations that give me peace. A few years ago I decided to keep a record of these shrines - and to re-experience them on their own terms each time - rather than try and hold each new view to previous values.

Family Stories

2010-09-25T09:25:00.000-07:00

In October I will be exhibiting Family Stories, an experimental set of images, through the Phantom Galleries Long Beach project. The Artist's Reception is Saturday, October 9th, 6:30 - 9:00pm, 217 The Promenade N, LB. The space is 1/2 block north of Broadway on The Promenade.

This body of work explores family through the understanding of personal and cultural memories and their relationship to identity. The exhibition will be broken into several sets of work and includes multiple photo-based approaches. The three sets are: Undone, Family Stories and Home. Undone is a set of mixed media images which incorporate cyanotypes and vintage family photographs. Many of the images also contain text which speaks to the identities of the pictured individuals. Family Stories continues with a set of diptych’s featuring vintage reversed family photographs with a series of narratives based on the pictured groups. Home is a set of images that explore the public face of private spaces in the belief that a home goes beyond just a physical space, it symbolizes our ideas of who we are as well as it provides an emotional refuge from the world.

Family Stories: Identity through Memory

2010-07-15T18:29:00.000-07:00

This multi-styled series explores the ideas of family mythology and how we find our identity through memory. We have so many myths attached to our concepts of family: the perfect home, wife, husband, father ...yet none of us live that life. We tend to believe that the people around us can be explained by their place in our family mythologies, yet it rarely speaks to the complexities of real life. With these images I am seeking to explore family through the understanding of personal and cultural memories and their relationship to identity.

The full series will be exhibited in October as part of the Phantom Galleries LA project. More info to come.

Saturday Night

2010-06-06T08:14:00.001-07:00

Closing hour at the mall, saturday night.

Alternative views

2010-05-22T10:09:00.001-07:00

What is a camera? When we use alternative cameras that format our images for us - are we still the originators or just the consumers? I love the images these apps create, but I always feel guilty - somehow they seem too easy. Then there's the whole issue of does it have to be difficult to be art? Ugg...

2010-04-08T16:20:00.000-07:00

Since returning from Houston's Fotofest I've been ruminating on the meaning of artistic expression and the following quote sent me in a good direction.

"A literary signature would be the visible shorthand for a literary person; a style would be a more complex but still legible trace of that person's interaction with the world. Writers usually have more signature than style, I think. Signature is their habit and their practice, their mark; style is something more secretive, more thoroughly dispersed among the words, a reflection of luck or grace, or of a moment when signature overcomes or forgets itself."

Michael Wood, The Magician's Doubts: Nabakov and the Risks of Fiction

New Color Series: Ordinary Spaces

2010-03-07T07:12:00.000-08:00

Just finished printing my first color series in almost a decade and will be taking it to Fotofest this week. These images, many of which were on the blog last year, explore how we are using the land and the beauty that ordinary spaces somehow manage to retain.

Lake Los Angeles

2010-02-12T10:01:00.001-08:00

California has a long history of real estate boom-bust cycles. In the mid 60's developers bought desert property, built a lake and Lake Los Angeles was born. My childhood memories of it are connected to the Los Angeles Underground newspaper - a short-lived project of my father's - and the investigative reporting that got his car shot up one night. Now it's a struggling collection of homes, small businesses and movie sets.

What's interesting to me is how we subdivide space in the desert...creating ownership next to abandonment.

2010-01-31T14:16:00.000-08:00

This winter we went to Susanville and apart from the absolute cold, what really caught my attention was the quality of twilight... It feels like I'm on the top of the world there - it's a very big space, with not much in it.

New Day, New Year

2010-01-01T12:40:00.000-08:00

Thank you so much for following this blog - it was an interesting experiment for me to post a daily image and I really got a chance to explore what I wanted to say in color (and in digital).

The blog will be continuing on a monthly basis...please stay in touch for January's posting.

Best to all, Ann

2009-12-31T05:09:00.000-08:00

365. Burbank, CA

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364. Pasadena, CA

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363. Carpinteria, CA

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362. Rancho Camulos, CA

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361. Fillmore, CA

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360. Fillmore, CA

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359. Burbank, CA

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358. Rancho Camulos, CA

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357. Rancho Camulos, CA

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356. Valencia, CA

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355. Famoso, CA

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354. Kingsburg, CA

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353. Fowler, CA

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352. Fowler, CA

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351. Fowler & Kingsburg, CA

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350. Clovis, CA

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349. Oakhurst, CA

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348. Oakhurst, CA

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347. Oakhurst, CA

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346. Oakhurst, CA

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345. Oakhurst, CA

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344. Grapevine, CA

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343. Pasadena, CA

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342. Burbank, CA

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341. Burbank, CA

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340. Burbank, CA

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339. Pasadena, CA

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338. Lake Arrowhead, CA

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337. Lake Arrowhead, CA

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336. Lake Arrowhead, CA

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335. Lake Arrowhead, CA

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334. Lake Arrowhead, Ca

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333. Glassell Park, CA

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332. Burbank, CA

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331. Glassell Park, CA

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330. Burbank, CA

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329. Glassell Park, CA

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328. Burbank, CA

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327. Burbank, CA

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326. Burbank, CA

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325. Fillmore, CA

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324. Lakewood, CA

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323. Lakewood, CA

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322. Rancho Camulos, CA

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321. Rancho Camulos, CA

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320. Rancho Camulos, CA

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319. Pasadena, CA

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318. Long Beach, CA

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317. Pasadena, CA

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316. Glendale, CA

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315. Glendale, CA

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314. Salton City, CA

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313. Salton City, CA

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312. Salton City, CA

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311. Salton City, CA

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310. Salton City, CA

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309. Salton Sea, CA

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308. Desert Shores, CA

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307. Desert Shores, CA

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306. Salton Sea Beach, CA

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305. Salton Sea Beach, CA

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304. Salton Sea Beach, CA

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303. Desert Shores, CA

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302. Indio, CA

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301. Indio, CA

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300. Coachella, CA

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299. Coachella, CA

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298. Indio, CA

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297. Palm Springs, CA

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296. Palm Springs, CA

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295. North Palm Springs, CA

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294. North Palm Springs, CA

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293. Eagle Rock, CA

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292. Eagle Rock, CA

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291. Eagle Rock, CA

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290. North Hollywood, CA

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289. Los Angeles, CA

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288. Los Angeles, CA

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287. Los Angeles, CA

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286. Los Angeles, CA

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285. Los Angeles, CA