Unseen Ansel Adams-Los Angeles 1940
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- Опубликовано: 16 сен 2024
- In 1940 Los Angeles had a population of 1.5 million. The cost of gas was 10 cents and a new car was $700. The U.S. began rearming for World War II and the prestigious Ansel Adams was commissioned by Fortune Magazine to photograph a series of images for an article covering the aviation industry in the Los Angeles area. For the project, Adams took over 200 black & white photographs showing everyday life, businesses, street scenes and a variety of other subjects. But when the article, City of the Angels, appeared in the March 1941 issue, only a few of the images were included.
In the early 1960s Adams rediscovered the photographs among papers at his home in Carmel and donated them to the Los Angeles Public Library. He wrote in a letter: "The weather was bad over a rather long period and none of the pictures were very good... I would imagine that they represent about $100.00 minimum value... At any event, I do not want them back." But as many critics will agree, sometimes an artist is not always the best judge of their own work.
Ansel Adams (1902-1984) created some of the most influential photographs ever made; he was one of the 20th century's leading exponents of environmental values. It seems that every third family in America has an Adams' poster on the wall, images that were difficult to make but easy to love. His images portray a romanticized and unspoiled Western American landscape, but Ansel Adams Los Angeles is a whole other body of work that is rarely discussed, let alone seen.
The picture at the 4:30 mark, is NOT the famous Angel Flight funicular, but rather the lesser known 'Court Hill' funicular. It ran between Hill and Broadway. (bottom)
Beautifully done slideshow -- and I love the music! How great to see these wonderful pieces I've never seen before -- will definitely plan to come see them in person at drkrm. Thanks for sharing this!
I saw the show when it first opened and can't waqit to get back there again. Will spend another two hours checking out the exhibit. While nearly all of the photos are excellent (Adams slumming is still way better than most photographers at their best), the ones that really got me were the candid trailer court shots, the L.A. street scenes, and the photo of the stylish old Ralph's Market. An illuminating look at the gritty backside of 1940's Los Angeles, untarnished by the glitz of Hollywood.
"1940" was much closer to "the 1930's" than 1942-1945 and the US was closer to if not still in the Great Depression versus any kind of "war manufacturing boom". Los Angeles, was really a fairly primitive area as these photos show. Sure, there was a splash of glitter around Beverly Hills and parts of the west side based on the film studios but LA was probably more of an oil town maybe like Tulsa, OK (Tulsa OK in 1940, that is) than anything like we might imagine it today or even 40 years ago. When WW2 broke out hundreds of thousands of factories were built around LA; Lockheed and Northrup and Vought and Consolidated all had small operations around LA before the war but they ballooned in the war years, and thousands and thousands of supporting manufacturing factories were built. Hundreds of industries became located there. And millions of people flooded in. There was work for everyone, indeed there were shortages of workers until the 80's.
I'm glad I got to live in LA in the 80's; it was still a boom town and those were terrific economic times. Back then if you wanted to start a business, you could do so just by opening your doors and offering your services or product. Back then, you could get a job in any industry you wanted if you were willing to show up and maybe sweep the floors for a week or two just to show that you could show up reliably. I knew dozens of people who just offered to work lights or cabling on TV shows who just showed up and acted interested, and a year later, they were staff lighting or technician guys making great money with steady work (unless there was a writers strike) Those were fabulous times.
"Primitive" with so many cars, well built buildings, well-dressed people and so on. Sure!
You do realize that WW2 started in September 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, right?
I definitely do. But for average people in Los Angeles who may have come to the area during the Dust Bowl or who were farmers or office or clothing workers in downtown LA, the war was in Europe and not in the US until, of course, Dec 07, 1941, *over two years* after Sept 01, 1939. At the same time, when people think of the "Great Depression" they usually think of "1929" but research will show that 1937 was one of the worst years of the Depression, when many thought the thing was over, yet the economy took another nosedive; and that the great Dust Bowl years were 1934, 1936, and 1939. So if you want to talk about the year "1940", I would say that Los Angeles was probably the beneficiary of the gradual realization on the part of the gov't that in light of what was going in Europe and the terrible condition the US military was in, some serious rebuilding had to go on. Yeah, there were the Northrops and Vought and Consolidated and various industrial & automotive plants in LA but they had not shifted into overdrive in 1940 as they did probably 1942.
I was in the LA area in the 80's. Didn't get a boom town vibe but people were wanting to try things out still. Some of the business ideas were a bit marginal and depended entirely on people having more money than they knew what to do with, so not ideas to carry you through hard times. The air was filthy, sea polluted and there were some rough areas to avoid. No one walked and cycling wasn't very popular. Every young person was smoking dope from Mexico.
My mom told me that things started to pick up in 1938 with orders coming in to the aircraft industry.
such an historic treasure. I remember that world. You saw peeks of it driving through Los Angeles in the 60s.
My dad spent his youth and war years culling trees for Uncle Sam. Spent most of that time in Yosemite. He met Ansel up there during those days. Liked him a lot. Daddy was a San Diego boy. I was born in Long Beach & grew up in Orange County. Even though these photos are way before my time (1959), I still recognize many. Some have commented here L.A. was still a bit of a back water in 1940, and outside of the city itself, it certainly had plenty of room to grow. But my mom could have easily been in that rv photo where the man was playing with the dog on his porch of the camp trailer. They were in one in the late '40's, early '50's. She hated the sound of all those war planes overhead coming off the line going to their various duty stations. And they were Oakies, direct from Oklahoma! So, I think Ansel captured things really well and is a nice balance.
Aww. It would have been in Technicolor.
Thank you
I was born in Chinatown and was raised in what was then the called Southwest Los Angeles. The city has lost some things that I miss (slow pace, low costs) and things that I do not miss (overt bigotry and poor air quality). I will never abandon this town.
Now you have sex bigotry, porn, addiction, more pollution, and yes, price hikes. Enjoy!
Bigotry ~ get over it
That was way back before my existence, VIVA L.A.
How about the oil derrick in the middle of the road at 3:53 !
Irony as train goes pst Lockheed...
2:41 One happy cat!
A time when the city was White, built for Whites, and not ashamed of a single thing.
modernpanther delete this
@CommandonerBob 1 Thank you, words of wisdom, peace ....and tolerance.
1:10 for a minute there I thought that was the twin towers jail in down town....
Wow how morbid the sound the pics
I’m sure it was NOT LIKE THIS
LOS
ANGELES
SIMBOLO
DE
NORTEAMERICA.