Photographer’s Eye Presents “Rick Castro S/M Blvd: Street Hustler Photographs”

Wednesday, February 21, 2024
12:00pm to 1:30pm
Central Library, Meeting Room A

Reservations not required. Seating is first-come, first-serve.

As a lifelong Los Angeleno, I know the pulse of my city. The surface shiny and sunny, the underbelly so dark one could burn in the shadows. My documentation of the street hustlers on Santa Monica Boulevard began as an obsession around 1990. The last era of male sex workers before the Internet centered around in-person communication that was raw and lustful, yet surprisingly innocent. For me, this was the quintessential romanticized L.A. story. Rejected souls from everywhere come to Hollywood trying to make it with all they have: their own bodies. To date my efforts have produced numerous photos, my first script, co-directing a feature-length film (Hustler White, 1996), and three books.

Rick Castro is a photographer, filmmaker and writer. Based in Los Angeles his entire life, he has created portraits of Gore Vidal, Kenneth Anger, Michele Lamy, and the 14th Dalai Lama, and created fashion editorials for Christian Dior Homme, Cartier, and Rick Owens. His latest book, Rick Castro S/M Blvd: Street Hustler Photographs and Remembrances 1986-1999 (All Night Menu Books, 2023), combines images and memories of the brief times he spent with the guys he met while cruising up and down “the loop” in his 1967 Mercury Cougar. Castro’s photography and writings are currently featured in “Copy Machine Manifesto: Artists Who Make Zines,” at Brooklyn Museum in New York City, thru March 31, 2024.

Sponsored by Photo Friends. Presented by the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection.

All images © Rick Castro.

Photographer’s Eye: Placeholder for a Grand Central Market Archive

Wednesday, April 18, 2018
12:15pm
Central Library, Meeting Room A

Reservations not required. Doors open at approximately 15 minutes before the start of the program.

Fiona Connor set up a large format Toyo View camera in the middle of Grand Central Market, a bustling culinary bazaar in downtown Los Angeles whose rapid makeover in recent years has been the source of cheerleading as well as anger over the changing nature of the city’s urban core. Opened in the late 1800s, Grand Central was long seen as a celebration of the city’s melting-pot character. Immigrants from Michoacan served up carnitas near stands that hawked cheap bowls of Hong Kong-style wonton soup. It was a place for everybody, and anybody, or so goes the narrative of those opposed to its recent evolution.

As city leaders have pushed for a downtown L.A. “renaissance,” with historic buildings transformed into stylish lofts and skid row’s homeless population pushed farther and farther to the margins, Grand Central has transformed, too. In just a few years, dozens of food stalls were pushed out as new ones serving up oysters and craft beer to the neighborhood’s growing class of young professionals moved in.

Over the course of 12 months, Connor documented this change in a work titled “Placeholder for a Grand Central Market Archive.” Once a month, she returned to the exact same spot at lunchtime and took a single photograph. The result is an edition of 12 sets of 8×10 prints that are a telling record of the market’s evolution. From one photo to the next, paint-cracked pillars change suddenly from black to white. A construction wall goes up. When it comes down, a brand new stall has been erected, an upscale bar opened by a pair of Hollywood restauranteurs that offers a collection of upscale wines as well as chicharones, fried pork rinds are a nod to the market’s not-so-distant past.

Connor’s prints will become part of the photo collection at the Los Angeles Public Library, joining other historical images of Grand Central Market for the public to use. The edition is designed so it can be seamlessly added to the collection, which is housed at Central Library downtown.

For her talk she will discuss this project and other examples where she has worked with existing archives.

Fiona Connor is a New Zealander born in 1981, currently living and practicing her art in Los Angeles. She received a degree in Fine Arts and History from the University of Auckland, and she earned her Masters in Fine Arts at California Institute of the Arts. Connor’s work uses strategies of repetition to produce objects that interrogate their own form by engaging different histories embedded within our built environment. For her, fabrication is a form of research. Her work was recognized in New Zealand when she was shortlisted in 2010 as one of four finalists for the bi-annual Walter’s Prize for contemporary art. Her installations are held by the Auckland City Art Gallery, The Dowse Gallery, the Te Papa in Wellington, the Christchurch Art Gallery, and the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. During the past eight years since being resident in Los Angeles Connor has devoted her energies both locally and across a global spread with exhibitions in New York, Barcelona, Basel, Istanbul, Sydney and Auckland. Connor’s artistic career has displayed a consistent attraction to working in a collaborative way and fluidly between curating, facilitating and object making. An example being the Newspaper Reading Club founded in 2011, and the conversion of her own Los Angeles apartment over 12 months into a gallery titled Laurel Doody in 2016.

Sponsored by Photo Friends. Presented by the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection.

Photo Friends Events for July 2017

L.A. Landmarks: Lost and Almost Lost – Opening Reception

Thursday, July 13, 2017
6:00pm to 8:00pm
Central Library
History/Genealogy Dept. – LL4

Reservations not required.

From famous icons to hidden gems, Los Angeles has amazing architecture as diverse as the city itself. But L.A.’s long tradition of reinvention has left beloved landmarks in its wake. This exhibit highlights just a few of the many great buildings that fell to the wrecking ball, as well as some that narrowly escaped. The landmarks we almost lost might surprise you, and their survival offers hope for a future that celebrates our past.

Join us for light refreshments and brief remarks from curator Cindy Olnick as we celebrate the opening of the latest exhibit featuring images from the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection.

Sponsored by Photo Friends.

More Information About the Exhibit

L.A. in Focus: The Wilshire Slides 1978-79, a Mother & Daughter Kodachrome Adventure

Saturday, July 15, 2017
2:00pm to 4:00pm
Central Library
Mark Taper Auditorium

Reservations not required. Doors open approximately 15 minutes before the start of the program.

It was a heck of an after-school project for a mother and daughter: do an informal photo survey of the Wilshire Boulevard from downtown to the ocean. Mother Marlene was a Michigan native who’d come to L.A. in the late 1950s and loved everything about the city, especially the architecture. Daughter Annie liked the architecture too, and loved using her mom’s Minolta camera. Together, they spent about a dozen Tuesday afternoons in 1978-9 walking Wilshire; Marlene taking notes and Annie taking pictures. The result was over 1000 Kodachrome slides, documenting L.A.’s iconic street from its great landmarks to its empty lots.

In 2010, Annie donated the Wilshire slides to the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection. Nearly 40 years later, the slides have turned into a unique time capsule of a boulevard that is in a constant state of change. Join Annie Laskey, Eric Lynxwiler, and Shannon Simonds as they take a closer look at some of the Wilshire slides, selected by Annie, as she looks back on those Tuesday afternoons she spent with her mom on Wilshire Boulevard.

Copies of the new book “The Wilshire Slides: A Mother & Daughter Kodachrome Adventure” will be for sale at the end of the program.

Presented by the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection. Sponsored by Photo Friends.

Photographer’s Eye: Todd Blubaugh – Too Far Gone

Wednesday, June 21, 2017
12:15pm to 1:00pm
Central Library, Meeting Room A

Reservations not required. Doors open at approximately 15 minutes before the start of the program.

Author and photographer Todd Blubaugh quit his job in pursuit of adventure on the open road, driven by his twin passions for photography and motorcycle culture. All told, Todd spent six months on the road, touching down in various U.S. cities during his transcontinental trip. His time spent traveling marks a personal sea change, and a period of great self-discovery. Too Far Gone (Gingko Press, 2016) is the photographic and anecdotal account of his experiences, presented through short vignettes as well as personal letters and artifacts, creating a compelling memoir of freedom, loss, and the search for human identity.

Todd Blubaugh was born and raised in McPherson,Kansas. His earliest interests were in art and motorbikes and since the age of 12, Todd has been pursuing these two passions. He currently works in film, writes, shoots and pursues collaborations with his roommates at The Chun, a motorcycle warehouse and art space in Los Angeles.

Sponsored by Photo Friends. Presented by the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection.

All images © 2017, Todd Blubaugh.

The Marx Brothers in Vaudeville (1905-1932)

Saturday, May 13, 2017
2:00pm to 4:00pm
Central Library
Mark Taper Auditorium

Reservations not required. Doors open approximately 15 minutes before the start of the program.

The Marx Brothers were known for wreaking their special kind of havoc on movie screens, but it was on the stage where they perfected their craft.Through rare images and video clips, author Robert S. Bader (Four of the Three Musketeers: The Marx Brothers on Stage, 2016) traces the gradual formation of the team as each teenaged Marx brother enters show business. Over a ten-year period they slowly develop the act that would make them stars and move them out of the difficult lifestyle of vaudeville and onto greater success on Broadway and in Hollywood.

Copies of Four of the Three Musketeers will be for sale after the presentation.

ROBERT S. BADER is the editor of Groucho Marx and Other Short Stories and Tall Tales. He is the curator of the Bing Crosby Archive and produced the television special The Legendary Bing Crosby. In addition to producing Dick Cavett’s Watergate and Dick Cavett’s Vietnam for PBS, Bader is also the writer and producer of the Warner Bros. documentary The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk. He has also produced numerous archival DVD releases, including two sets of You Bet Your Life with Groucho Marx. His recent DVD productions include the Marx Brothers TV Collection; The Honeymooners: Lost Episodes, 1951–1957; and The Best of the Danny Kaye Show. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife and several dogs.

Presented by the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection and the Literature & Fiction Department. Sponsored by Photo Friends.

All images courtesy of Robert S. Bader.

Photographer’s Eye: Pro Tips to Improve Your Photography

Wednesday, April 19, 2017
12:15pm to 1:00pm
Central Library, Meeting Room A

Reservations not required, but early arrival is recommended to guarantee a seat which is first come, first serve. Doors open approximately 15 minutes before the start of the program.

Raul Roa, a veteran photographer will discuss photojournalism techniques to improve your photography and what’s in your photo toolbox for today’s social media. He will speak about using not only conventional digital cameras and lenses but also using iPhone and GoPro cameras in the course of working as a photojournalist and the techniques used to improve your overall photography skills.

Raul Roa has worked as a photojournalist for 23 years in Southern California and is Presently a staff photographer at the Los Angeles Times Community News covering Burbank, Glendale and La Cañada Flintridge. He is also an avid bird photographer and astrophotographer.

Sponsored by Photo Friends. Presented by the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection.

Image: ©Raul Roa 2017

Photographer’s Eye: One Golden Moment – The 1984 Olympic Games Through the Lens of the Herald Examiner

Wednesday, August 10, 2016
12:15pm to 1:00pm
Central Library, Meeting Room A

Reservations not required. Doors open approximately 15 minutes before the start of the program.

The 1984 Los Angeles Olympics were a milestone in the city’s history — and the photographers of the Herald Examiner newspaper were there to capture every thrilling moment, from the triumphs of Carl Lewis, Michael Jordan, Greg Louganis and Mary Lou Retton to the heartbreak experienced by Mary Decker and Evander Holyfield. As the world’s best athletes gather in Brazil for this summer’s Rio Olympics, re-live the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics through the memorable and intimate photographs of the Herald Examiner with David Davis, sports journalist and author of Waterman: The Life and Times of Duke Kahanamoku (University of Nebraska Press).

Sponsored by Photo Friends. Presented by the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection.

Firsts, Seconds and Thirds: African American Leaders in Los Angeles During the 1960s &70s from the Rolland Curtis Collection

Civil Rights took shape in 1960s Los Angeles as African Americans broke color barriers and began to occupy positions in government. Progress during this time extended past politics, to the realm of entertainment, commerce, public service and activism. It is in the midst of this exciting time that Rolland J. Curtis took thousands of photographs while serving as a Field Deputy for Council Members Billy Mills and Tom Bradley.

Curtis’ images provide a unique view of the African American experience in South Los Angeles during this time. This exhibit presents a sampling of the city’s black leaders of the period. Some famous, some forgotten, these individuals were true trailblazers: the first, second, or third African Americans in the history of Los Angeles to accomplish their feats.

Made possible through a grant from the John Randolph Haynes and Dora Haynes Foundation.

This event presented by the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection and sponsored by Photo Friends.

Firsts, Seconds and Thirds: African American Leaders in Los Angeles from the 1960s and ’70s from the Rolland J. Curtis Collection