The intersection of Sepulveda and Washington Boulevards in Culver City fifty years ago. I’ve driven through this intersection a thousand times. It could use a rocket ship and a big ass donut again.
LOS ANGELES—The corner of Sepulveda and Washington Boulevards in Culver City, 1960. © Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos
Pedlow Skatepark in Encino has a great, massive and roomy keyhole bowl, a large street course, a super tight, shallow snake run and some horseshoes in the street area. There is unfortunately no tree cover and subsequently no shade in the entire park so summer afternoons are brutal. It is near a school also so after 2PM, watch out for the flying groms.
Shot for National Lampoon. I do not remember the significance of the white wicker elephant but this guy had a nice layback air.
Pedlow Skatepark, Encino © Doug Kim
Someone pointed out to me the similarity between the Times Square snowball fight photos and the pillow fight photos I took almost two years ago in downtown Los Angeles.
It’s true, of course, and maybe a bit obvious, but revisiting these images, I really enjoy how each person’s expression is completely genuine and in the moment. There’s a military term for the combat soldier’s mental state of mind called the “dictatorship of the present”, where there are no thoughts of yesterday or tomorrow, only of what is immediately around you in the moment.
Bullets, snowballs, pillows. It just pays to be alert.
And yes, I did get hit in the face shooting the pillow fight.
Pillowfight, Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Pillowfight, Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Pillowfight, Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Pillowfight, Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Pillowfight, Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Pillowfight, Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Pillowfight, Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Pillowfight, Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Pillowfight, Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Pillowfight, Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Shot with a Nikon F5, 12-24mm Nikkor, 35-70mm Nikkor, Fuji NPZ800, and Kodak Tri-X 400.
Bronx-born Dennis Stock passed away this Tuesday at the age of 81. Shooting for Magnum Photos for over 50 years, his body of work is most notable for his images of jazz greats and Hollywood celebrities, especially his iconic images of James Dean taken just prior to his death in 1955. One of my favorite series of his are the images on the set of “The Planet of The Apes” movie. I will search for more of those images and post them soon.
James Dean in Times Square, 1955 © Dennis Stock
A very famous photograph of James Dean taken in Times Square in 1955. He is walking in the rain, cigarette dangling from his lips, the beauty of 1950’s New York in varying shades of black and grey — foggy, misty and utterly compelling — in short a perfect picture… perfect composition, perfect subject, perfect era, perfect mood.
-Gail Levin, filmmaker
John Updike, Massachusetts, 1962 © Dennis Stock / Magnum
Art is a well-articulated manifestation of an aspect of life. I have been privileged to view much of life through my cameras, making the journey an enlightened experience. My emphasis has mainly been on affirmative reactions to human behavior and a strong attraction to the beauty in nature.
– Dennis Stock
New York City, 1959 © Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos
Cafe de Flore © Dennis Stock
I’ve never taken an assignment. I’ve always photographed what I wanted to be photographing, and then worried about selling the pictures or doing something with them afterwards. I’ve always shot for myself, and when you’re shooting what you’re interested in shooting, you’re always going to be happy.
– Dennis Stock
NEW YORK CITY—Audrey Hepburn during the filming of Sabrina by Billy Wilder, 1954. © Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos
UNITED STATES—Marilyn Monroe watching the filming of Desirée, 1953. © Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos
PHILADELPHIA—Louis Armstrong during the last minute of concentration in the wings before appearing in public, 1958. © Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos
Miles Davis, Birdland, New York City, 1958. © Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos
FAIRMOUNT, Ind.—James Dean on the farm of his uncle Marcus Winslow, posing with a pig and asking himself, "Do I belong to the animals, to the pigs, the cattle, or the goats?" 1955. © Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos
CALIFORNIA—A surfer at Corona del Mar, 1968. © Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos
Discovery, which is the heartbeat of good photography, occurs more readily when the photographer relinquishes self-consciousness for a state of humility and childlike wonderment. Then there is a greater freshness and purity in what you capture on film.
-Dennis Stock
LOS ANGELES—Playa del Rey, 1968. © Dennis Stock / Magnum Photos
At my best, when I am shooting B&W, my images are all about light and the way it interacts with the world. I will often shoot the source light itself, the sun or a bank of windows, all blown out and creating an area of dead space.
With film also, metering when shooting the source light is tricky because the range of exposure stops within the image is large. I tend to point the Lecia at the area that will have the proper exposure for the figure in the light, such as the floor, and then reframe. Another great metering tip with the Leica in tricky situations is to take a reading off of your hand when in the same light as the subject, the hand being the greatest gray card.
In this instance, shooting these two standing in front of an installation at MOCA, I metered the room and opened up three stops. I neither wanted the bodies completely silhouetted in black nor the light source completely blown out. I got exactly what I wanted which is a half and half mixture of luck and experience.
Shot with a Leica M6 TTL, 35mm summicron, and Kodak Tri-X 400.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles © Doug Kim
To live for two months in LA is like being hospitalized.
-Robert Frank, February 27, 1956; from a letter to Walker Evans, while Frank was applying for a continuance of his Guggenheim grant.
Los Angeles, 1956, Robert Frank
Los Angeles, 1956, Robert Frank
Los Angeles, 1956, Robert Frank
St. Francis, Gas Station and City Hall – Los Angeles, 1956, Robert Frank
Ranch market, Hollywood, California, Robert Frank
Motorama, Los Angeles, California, Robert Frank
Shot with a Leica M6 TTL, 35mm Summicron and a Mamiya 67 Pro II, 85mm and Agfa APX 400.
Leyla, Union Station, Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Leyla, Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Leyla, West Hollywood © Doug Kim
Leyla, West Hollywood © Doug Kim
Leyla, West Hollywood © Doug Kim
Leyla, Santa Monica © Doug Kim
Leyla, West LA © Doug Kim
Shot with a Leica M6 TTL, 35mm Summicron, Mamiya 67 Pro II, Agfa APX 400 and Fuji NPZ 800.
Cheryl, Pepperdine, Malibu © Doug Kim
Cheryl, Downtown Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Cheryl, Downtown Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Cheryl, Downtown Los Angeles © Doug Kim
Cheryl & Perry, Downtown Los Angeles © Doug Kim
I just found these in my archives, old scans from 2001 probably. I am not even sure what was going on, what I was shooting or why I was even there. But I have proof that something went on and I was there.
That is about it.
Chinese fashion show, Alhambra, CA © Doug Kim
Chinese fashion show, Alhambra, CA © Doug Kim
Chinese fashion show, Alhambra, CA © Doug Kim
Chinese fashion show, Alhambra, CA © Doug Kim
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