Photographing flowers with my Deardorff 8x10

A beautiful hand crafted wooden1930s Deardorff camera complete with the factory offered "extended bellows" feature - A gift from my dear friend, Wally Seawell, one of Hollywood's magnificent Golden Era photographers. Every iconic artist of the Silver Screen from Mary Pickford to Betty Davis, Gregory Peck, John Wayne and Elizabeth Taylor has played a starring role in front of this camera, appearing upside down and backwards on it's shimmering ground glass. That history never fails to tap on my shoulder every time I slide under the dark cloth. 

 

“The single most important component of a camera is the twelve inches behind it!”
― Ansel Adams

Experience 11: Scratch – El Segundo Museum of Art

LA Artists & The Getty Research Institute - Graffiti Black Book

Artists Defer & BIG Sleeps at SCRATCH opening - El Segundo Museum of Art - ESMoA

Jim McHugh - 8x10 Deardorff camera  -

Portrait of "KING CRE8" made with IMPOSSIBLE PROJECT 8x10 instant film

Experience 11: Scratch (Jun 8 until Sept 21, 2014)

Many of LA’s most influential graffiti and tattoo artists have covered the walls and floors of ESMoA to publicly launch their 21st century encounter with an artistic tradition: the Getty Black Book. 

 Opening Night - 06-06-14

KCRW's Edward Goldman and ESMoA Director Eva Sweeney with artists Fishe and Miner during the installation



Hear KCRW art critic Edward Goldman discuss this exhibition in his popular Los Angeles art series "Art Talk: (audio)

In 2013 more than 150 of LA’s leading graffiti artists responded to a 16th century manuscript from the vaults of the Getty Research Institute called a liber amicorum (book of friends) by contributing works on paper to be bound into a single book and created the Getty Graffiti Black Book. Street artists have used black books for decades to create a visual memory of drafts and to serve as a vehicle for the exchange of ideas. The extraordinary competition that occasionally arises among such artists can also lead to respect as rivals invite each other to “hit” their black books with original works. The contributing artists decided to give the Getty Black Book the title, LA Liber Amicorum, to capture the spirit of its transformation of rival ‘writing-crews’ into a Los Angeles Book of Friends.

Now, ESMoA and the Getty Research Institute have invited Getty Black Book artists Axis, Cre8, Defer, Eyeone, Fishe, and Miner to co-curate those crews of creative friends from the LA graffiti art community and turn the art laboratory of ESMoA into an open black book. Graffiti and tattoo artists will transform the space into a cathedral of urban art for the first presentation of the LA Liber Amicorum to the public with SCRATCH.

Graffito is old Italian slang for “a little mark,” and graphein in Ancient Greek meant “scratch, draw, paint” long before it meant “to write.” Graffiti artists craft letterforms, draft perspective, and merge line, color, and form with the same techniques employed by Renaissance masters like Albrecht Dürer.

Axis, Prime, Fishe, Getty Research Institute curator of rare books, David Brafman, CRE8, Phantom, Eyeone and Patrick Martinez

 
The first edition of Dürer’s landmark book on perspective was just one of the many rare books that the artists viewed at the Getty Research Institute in the process of creating the LA Liber Amicorum. Some of those jewels in the history of calligraphy, engraving, and emblematic symbolism from the Renaissance to the Enlightenment, as well as sixteenth-century painted friendship-books that inspired the project, will be installed in the space surrounded by the graffiti-writers’ art. iPads will be mounted, so visitors can ‘e-flip’ through the books and not only share the artists’ own creative experience and response to the impact of viewing these rare books, but also continually co-curate the space by choosing which page-openings will be in dialogue with the art on the walls and floor.

Rare manuscripts on view 

Getty Research Institute curator of rare books, David Brafman

The SCRATCH art experience is curated by GRI Rare Books Curator, David Brafman.

"The viewer can see the inspiration of these rare books on form, shape, and lettering, and see these street artists are part of a long tradition of writing and creativity." 

– Lisa Cambier, Getty Research Institute

ENK

artist Joe Reza -"PRIME" working on a scaffold

ESMoA  a link   

Jim McHugh

LOS ANGELES: 40 ARTISTS

The Getty Museum 

Pacific Standard Time 

Timothy Yarger Fine Art, Beverly Hills
#westernave  instagram
ESMoA  SCRATCH

Union Station 75th Anniversary

Including "High Hopes" - Six Images by Jim McHugh

"Union Station" – 30" x 60" Duratrans, 1 of 6 from the series "High Hopes"   © 2005 Jim McHugh

Opening ceremony – Union Station 75th Anniversary Celebration 

May 3rd marked the opening ceremony commemorating Union Station's 75th Anniversary. The celebration featured various musical and other performances throughout the day in the Old Ticket Concourse, South Patio, East Portal and Fred Harvey space. Vintage sounds from the years the station opened—swing, blues, roots—mingled with more contemporary and cultural beats—Afro-Mexican Son Jarocho, Salsa, funk, Japanese taiko, New Orleans style brass, Chinese lion dancers and more. 

Metro Art Docents, posted at various locations throughout the station, answered questions about the architecture and art in the station—including the new photo light boxes in the Union Station Passageway!   

The Heart of Los Angeles

In celebration of Union Station’s 75th Anniversary, a new art space has been added to its historic passenger tunnel. The last great railway station built in America, this passageway has appeared in countless films, from the gritty 1950 noir classic “Union Station” with William Holden to “Blade Runner” and its futuristic portrayal of Los Angeles.

“The Heart of Los Angeles” series introduces artworks created by five artists: Suzanne Adelman, Sam Comen, Kevin McCollister, Jim McHugh and Catherine Opie (six by each artist). The photographs relate to the station’s architectural heritage, transit usage, cultural significance, and its physical and social relationship to neighboring communities.

Jim McHugh is inspired by the disappearing architectural landmarks of his childhood in Los Angeles. He makes portraits of the city’s other “celebrities”— the buildings around us, some forgotten and silent. Far more than simple documents of architecture, these photographs serve as powerful portraits, preserving impressions of character and personality from another time.

Historic passengerway at celebrated Los Angeles Union Station. Six Duratrans panels titled "High Hopes" by Jim McHugh. (photo Matt Levitch)

Celebrated photographer Douglas Kirkland, known for his timeless photographs of Marilyn Monroe, points his lens on a perhaps-less-glamorous subject, Jim McHugh, with lighting assistance from Tim Yarger of Timothy Yarger Fine Arts. Union Station opening celebration, May 3, 2014

"Far more than simple documents of architecture, these photographs serve as powerful portraits, preserving impressions of character and personality from another time."

– Heidi Zeller, MTA Creative Services

Color-proofing small Duratrans proofs for Union Station installation with master printer Joe Hill of Prolab Digital and Heidi Zeller of MTA Creative Services. (photo Matt Levitch)