leaving LAX

Taking off from Los Angeles. From a series of photographs taken in the early 1980s.

magenta positives

Earlier this month I spent an afternoon as a docent for the Los Angeles Historic Theatre Foundation's "All About the Wiltern Theatre" tour. It was a fantastic event that I am proud to have been a part of. Both before and after the tour I had time to photograph some old haunts as well as some new discoveries. 

It turns out that the slide film I was shooting that day hadn't aged gracefully. Here are some of my favorite photographs from the day's roll, in all of their magenta glory.

All photographs © Monika Seitz Vega, August 2014. Long live film.

Chinatown in twenty minutes

What could one possibly do in Chinatown on a grey July morning when there's nowhere to park and the only metered space to be found was $3/hour and there were only 20 minutes worth of quarters in the camera bag?

Quite a bit actually. I purchased two new parasols, grabbed some postcards to send to friends out of town (3 for $1!), and took the photographs below. Guānshǎng!

Theatres by Diana

In the fall of 2009 I shot the following photographs with my Diana F+ toy camera. The ultimate in low-fi unpredictability, it's always interesting see how the photos will turn out. Here are the results, straight out of the camera... light leaks and all.

Grauman's Chinese Theatre, Hollywood, CA. © Monika Seitz Vega, 2009.

Fox Theatre, Pomona, CA. © Monika Seitz Vega, 2009.

Fox Theatre, Pomona, CA. © Monika Seitz Vega, 2009.

Hollywood Palladium, Los Angeles, CA. © Monika Seitz Vega, 2009.

Pantages Theatre, Hollywood, CA. © Monika Seitz Vega, 2009.

Vogue Theatre, Hollywood, CA. © Monika Seitz Vega, 2009.

Theatres of 2012 - Part 1

I'll admit it, I am ridiculously behind in my yearly theatre retrospective. It's not that I haven't been shooting (I have), or I'm not interested in my theatre project anymore (I am), it's just that things get shuffled around sometimes and unfortunately the theatres of 2012 have been relegated to the back burner. I'm committed to complete last years' entries before the end of this year, so let's get started with the first four theatres now.

Fox La Brea Theatre, January 2012 © Monika Seitz Vega

The Fox La Brea Theatre sits precariously at the corner of La Brea and West 8th Street in Los Angeles. The La Brea opened in 1926 and closed in the 1950s. Despite a brief run in the 1960s as an art house, and then in the early 1970s as a Japanese theatre, the La Brea ceased operation as a theatre in 1974. It is currently in use as a Korean church.

Bay Theatre, February 2012 © Monika Seitz Vega

The Bay Theatre in National City, CA opened in 1944. It was designed by renowned cinema architect S. Charles Lee, who designed such theatres as Inglewood's Fox and Academy (both of which are still standing) and my favorite movie house ever, San Diego's Ken Cinema. Just like the La Brea, the Bay ended its run as a theatre and housed a church for many years. Unfortunately, the Bay now sits vacant, awaiting its next incarnation.

El Rey Theater, January 2012, © Monika Seitz Vega

Los Angeles' El Rey Theater opened as a cinema in 1936. After many successful years on Wilshire Blvd., the theater was converted in 1994 to a live performance venue and continues to be one of the best small venues in the city. In 1991, the El Rey was given status as a Los Angeles Historic-Cultural Monument for the Wilshire District, joining another gem of a theatre, the Wiltern.

Del Mar Theatre, January 2012 © Monika Seitz Vega

I couldn't get through a theatre post without profiling one killed by the 1980s, could I? The Del Mar opened on Pico Boulevard in Los Angeles in April of 1936. Out of business in the eighties thanks to multiplexes/home movies/etc., the Del Mar had a short run as a church before the auditorium was gutted and leveled for retail. The silver lining to the Del Mar's cloud is that Puget Sound, Inc., a group that does post-production audio work for movies, took over the theatre in the early 2000s and restored the facade with help from the Pico Revitalization Project. The Del Mar's beautiful neon shines nightly, a wonderful tribute to its days of being a neighborhood movie house.

There's more to come, and soon. In the meantime, check out the theatres of 2011 retrospective.

USS Iowa -- San Pedro, CA

Last November a group of us took a trip to the recently docked battleship USS Iowa in San Pedro, CA. Built in 1940, the Iowa was active during World War II, the Korean War, and the post-war eras. The battleship was decommissioned in 1990 and moved to its permanent home in southern California in the summer of 2012.

If you're interested in visiting the USS Iowa, now a museum, take a look at the website for hours and information.

(Don't forget, you can "click" each photo to make it larger)

   

All photographs © Monika Seitz Vega, 2012.

postcards, part 2

A few more postcards from my collection this morning, the last morning of summer.

front

back, postmarked April 13, 1908, Syracuse, Indiana

front

back, postmarked August 14, 1946, Los Angeles, California

front

back, postmarked July 2, 1948, Hastings, Nebraska

front

back, postmarked December 27, 1926

In case you missed it, here's postcards, part 1.