Tomorrow, Paris Photo will open in Los Angeles. We decided to devote an entire week of Le Journal not only to the event, but also to photography all along the West Coast. Why? First, this is the most important event of its kind to be held in Los Angeles. Second, the photographic history of the region, despite boldface names like Edward Weston, Ansel Adams and Ed Ruscha, remains relatively unexplored. And third, with Getty Communications in Seattle (the only photo agency that’s doing fine), publishing houses like Taschen and Twin Palms, and the museums and galleries of Tucson, Santa Fe and Denver, the Western United States has some of the country’s most vibrant photo scenes.
Photography was the last individual artistic adventure: photographers, collectors and curators were the cowboys of the art world. And they’re all right here: Michael Wilson, one of the world’s biggest collectors and the producer of James Bond; Manfred Heiting, who, since selling his collection of prints, has amassed the world’s largest collection of photo books; Benedikt Taschen, who revolutionized the world of publishing; David Fahey; Robert Fraenkel; Greg Gorman, a talented photographer and wine connoisseur; Philip Dixon, one of the few heirs to Jack Kerouac and Lawrence Ferlinghetti; and Jeff Dunas; and Peter C. Jones, a photographer, filmmaker, dealer, writer and producer of books. Everyone on this list continues to explore new territories of photography and experiment with new approaches
One day in September 1996, I found myself north of San Francisco, in Santa Rosa near Napa Valley, at the home of Hansel Mieth. Hansel was a tiny woman, about 4’6”, and one of the greatest photojournalists of our time, although today she has been forgotten. She had moved there forty-five years before with her husband, Otto Hagel, in memory of Jack London. She lived alone on a small ranch, ten miles from her closest neighbor. Over the course of six hours, she spoke about the twenty years she spent at Life magazine, the weekend hunting parties on her property with Gary Cooper and his gang of Hollywood friends and directors, and how her home was used for the passionate, adulterous getaways of Robert Capa and Ingrid Bergman. Freedom, nonchalance, the feeling that anything can happen at any moment—This was the West Coast then and still is today.
This special edition of Le Journal was realized with the help of Peter Jones, Elizabeth Avedon, Weston Naef, Jeff Dunas, Nicholas Fahey, Andy Romanoff and Eric Kroll. We would also like to thank Damien Thomas, Emma Loos of Paris Photo LA (Reed Production) and Gilles Decamps, who gathered all of the material.
Jean-Jacques Naudet
Paris Photo Los Angeles 2013
Friday, April 26 – 12:00pm – 7:00pm
Saturday April 27 – 12:00pm – 7:00pm
Sunday April 28 12:00 pm – 6:00pm
Paramount Studios
5555 Melrose Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90038
USA
