A Change In Scenery

25 September 2012

4 Polaroids from Wednesday

Wednesday morning I took a trip east in search of adventure. Here are four Polaroids I took that day.

Fox Theatre, Banning, CA © Monika Seitz Vega, 19 September 2012

Banning, CA © Monika Seitz Vega, 19 September 2012

Beaumont, CA © Monika Seitz Vega, 19 September 2012

While in Beaumont I stopped to photograph the 1939 Beaumont Theatre, which is now home of the Beaumont Antique Mall. The ladies running the place were lovely, and how could I resist "instant relatives" at two for $1?

07 September 2012

Formal shop diptych

The same Broadway formal shop, but a year apart and with two different cameras and films.

(January 2015 update: This dress shop is now a Gap Outlet.)

01 September 2012

You Can Always Go....

We weren't alone, and life wasn't making us lonely, but my sweetie and I hit the streets of downtown Los Angeles nonetheless. It was a warm August evening and absolutely wonderful.

Clifton's Cafeteria is undergoing an in depth renovation, which recently uncovered what is being considered "The World's Oldest Neon Sign".

The 1913 Rosslyn Hotel buildings are now lofts. The neon of both buildings is tremendous and visible nightly.

29 August 2012

The Lost Roll

About a year ago I came across an antique store in a town I don't frequent. I came across a basket of cameras, mostly modern film point and shoots, but also a Spartus Full Vue twin lens reflex. Priced to sell at $10 (it's insane what people price mid century cameras at compared to what they're really worth), I was excited to take it home and give it a whirl. At the bottom of the basket of cameras was an exposed roll of 120 film. I assumed it was from the Spartus, so I put it in the camera, excited to see what developed (heh) when I processed the film at home.

photographer and date unknown

The roll clearly wasn't from the Spartus. The negatives are not square, and whatever camera this is had aperture and shutter controls, unlike the set settings of the Full Vue. This image of the humming birds in my favorite. There were 6 bird feeder pictures of the 10 exposures on the roll.

photographer and date unknown

A quick search informs me that Griswold's Inn was in Pomona, CA. It seems that there is Double Tree Hotel there now.

photographer and date unknown

Who are these ladies, that (at least) two people are photographing them? It was the 1980s, so who knows. I like to imaging that it's Mia Farrow on the left, chatting with Sharon Stone on the right.

09 July 2012

Four photographs of arrow signs

Less talk and more rock on this warm July evening.

Los Angeles, CA © Monika Seitz Vega, 2012

Downtown Los Angeles/Monterey Park, CA © Monika Seitz Vega, 2011

Los Angeles, CA © Monika Seitz Vega, 2011

Culver City, CA © Monika Seitz Vega, 2011

30 June 2012

Revisiting Chicago's Forest Home Cemetery

With the 143rd anniversary of the birth of Emma Goldman earlier this week, I'd like to revisit my photographs from Chicago's Forest Home Cemetery (also known as Waldheim Cemetery), where Goldman and many of her peers are interned.

In November 2000 I took a train trip across the country, from San Diego to Philadelphia and back, with some stops in between. I had a 7 hour layover in Chicago and decided to take a very icy, very cold trip by foot and subway to Forest Park. It was snowing hard when I walked into the cemetery's office. I had walked the 1/2 mile or so from the subway in the snow and single digit temperatures. I remember the look on the man behind the desk's face to this day. I'm sure he was thinking how terribly underdressed for the weather I was. When I asked him if Emma Goldman was buried there, he nodded, and then pointed up the main road. Um.... thanks?

Forest Home Cemetery, November 2000 ©Monika Seitz Vega (this is a decade old scan that has been stored away on a disc for ages, and therefore not of the finest quality...my sincerest apologies)

Up the slippery road I went. I had no idea what I was looking for. What I did know, from my knowledge of Goldman and her life, was that she chose to be buried at Waldheim near the Haymarket Martyrs, the men who remained a constant inspiration to her throughout her life. If I found them, I knew I'd be on the right path.

Haymarket Monument, Forest Home Cemetery, November 2000 ©Monika Seitz Vega

The Haymarket monument is absolutely breathtaking. As I approached it that day I was overcome with the feeling that I was experiencing something that was going to change my life. It's one thing to read a book, or see a photograph, but it's something else completely to stand on the same ground where something special happened. I didn't stop to pay my respects, though. I didn't even stop to take this photograph (which was actually one of the last I took during this visit to the cemetery). I knew right away that if I was at the Haymarket martyrs graves, that I had to be close to my beloved Emma. I guiltily shuffled past the monument, knowing that I couldn't stop until I found her.

Forest Home Cemetery, November 2000 ©Monika Seitz Vega

Luckily for my numb toes and gloveless fingers I found Goldman's grave shortly after passing the Haymarket monument. There were flowers and stones and trinkets and letters on the ground around her grave. Looking back on the photographs, the graves I wanted to see were not that far from the entrance of the cemetery.

Emma Goldman's grave, November 2004 © Monika Seitz Vega

Emma Goldman's grave, November 2000 © Monika Seitz Vega

I spent quite a while there, leaving my own trinkets and a note written on a receipt from my travels before revisiting the Haymarket martyrs.

Other graves of note in the Goldman/Haymarket vacinity are those of Lucy Parsons, author and wife of Haymarket martyr Albert Parsons; anarchist and feminist Voltairine de Cleyre; and women's rights educator and activist Elizabeth Gurley Flynn.

In November of 2004 I flew to Chicago to meet friends for one of three nights of Pixies concerts at the Aragon Ballroom. The day after the show we made our way to Forest Home. It wasn't the snowy and frigid cemetery I'd visited 4 years earlier. The weather was damp and pleasant and as my friends wandered I revisited the graves I had four years prior. It was November 17th, the birthday of Voltairine de Cleyre. I took a flower from Emma Goldman's grave to place on her friend's for her birthday. I know she would have approved.

I implore anyone not familiar with Goldman, the Haymarket martyrs, or the others whom I've I've mentioned in this entry to please look them up. AK Press Publishing and Distribution is a tremendous resource that I highly recommend.

14 June 2012

Disneyland by Holga

I know I've mentioned before how much I love Disneyland. What I want to emphasize today, though, is how perfect a relationship my Holga and Disneyland have. It is by far my favorite camera to take to the park.

With this weekend's official opening of Cars Land comes a whole new adventure for the Holga and I, and I'm eager for it.