WHEN,
and how?
All I saw was Chinese writing, vacant buildings, and ironically for an auto-dependant city, not one car. The sign on the wall of the Getty Center said, “Los Angeles Urban Panoramic Photographs,” but ‘my’ LA was nowhere in sight. The photographer emphasized the idea of the mini-mall being the major component of the Los Angeles urban landscape. Though I agree with that concept I still couldn’t stomach this dark depiction of the mini-mall. Yes, they are flat, yes they serve no aesthetic purpose what so ever, and yes, they tend to appeal to the consumer in transit, but I thought we were going for Sunset Blvd. and the downtown skyline LA here, not the unspoken for back streets.
When we typically think of the LA mini-mall, we automatically think of the 1950’s, urban sprawl, and middle class suburban dwellers driving into “town” for their variation of errand running. Heaven forbid instead of finding something along the lines of this there be a foreign and unkempt mini-mall, where crime and other deviances can take place. The Los Angeles mini-mall is to be a safe haven, and a sort of one stop shop for the suburban consumers.
None of these black and white photographs said safe. Many of them were not even legible to the average American, as the storefronts pictured were in a different language. Windows were broken, and the stucco walls were cracked. Letters were missing in signs and the scattered potholes in the parking lot made for an unpleasant welcome. And for god sake where are the people? These barren structures lacked any livelihood, very opposite of the Los Angeles we are most comfortable associating with, especially while in a museum. We Angelenos are protective of our “white spot” city, and the images of this exhibit formed a threat against an image we hold dear.
Now, I don’t’ mean to shift so abruptly and reveal a secret alternative side of my emotions on this matter, emotions that in all my disagreeing somehow bring me to a point of relating or even understanding. Before I completely deny these accusations and disassociate Angelinos with the images on that wall, I must ask the question, is this empty and broken depiction on purpose? Are we too like our structures, empty and broken? Come on, we’re Hollywood, we’re Sunset Boulevard and the entertainment capital. Yes there is a traffic issue here and there but it’s all worth it when you realize your stuck on the road next to Tom Cruise for a few hours. In actuality this underbelly realization is true whether we are proud of it or not. The irony of the mini malls today, is they completely contradict these safe havens Los Angeles once built up, at least as far as the ones in the photographs are concerned. If this is the case then the photographer’s dark quiet photographs shed light and spoke volumes on corners Los Angeles has managed to keep under wraps.
There we have it, I have managed to have an ah-ha moment right in the middle of writing this. At first I was turned off by this representation of Los Angeles. I didn’t understand why someone would spend all the money and time it took, only to relay the message that Los Angeles isn’t what we all thought it was. After all the photos of New York City were vibrant and seemingly relevant. It looked like the people in those photographs were on a mission and any distraction would be a set back of one hundred years. Their buildings were just as loud and as meaningful as they were. The colors were bright and the words on the buildings were electronically displayed and moved horizontally across the side of the buildings, making sure to keep a steady pace with the important people walking down below. Why didn’t Los Angeles look meaningful and appealing? In conclusion I have come to the realization that the photographer of the New York panoramas had their best foot forward and quite possibly went for the stereotype went for the stereotype (come on NY you’re not all that important). I cannot deny that it took much more courage for the photographer of the Los Angeles panoramas to give us an LA we might not like or even know was there, and for that I commend her honesty and willingness to show a bit of the cold hard truth.
-- Erin Golightly
(photo credit: top, Zabowski; bottom, OmarOmar, flickr creative commons)
