Scenes from the L8S ANG3LES Exhibit at L.A.'s Annenberg Space for Photography

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There are those who say L.A. is a cultural wasteland, a glorified suburb, a cesspool of bad architecture. And then, thankfully, there are those who dedicate life and craft towards dispelling these untruths. The visionary Annenbergs fall into the latter category. I was invited to preview the Annenberg Foundation’s Space for Photography, a brand new space showcasing some of the city’s most iconic photographers and celebrating a “new cultural direction for L.A.”

The admission-free gallery is a beacon in cutting-edge technology and architecture. Every detail from the springy floor made of recycled tractor tires, the ceiling molded into a massive aperture and the gunmetal grey color palette is an homage to the Camera (capital C).

Aside from the magnificent photography, the space itself is interactive in an unprecedented way. In addition to a giant high-resolution screen, the prints are viewable on an infrared touch-screen. Crazy! The future is now!

The photography legends gracing the walls include Carolyn Cole, Catherine Opie, Julius Shulman, Greg Gorman, as well as various L.A. Times contributors. My personal favorites were Douglas Kirkland’s softly elegant celebrity portraits and Lauren Greenfield’s morose girls (check out Greenfield’s haunting documentary on anorexia, Thin). Though the subjects ranged from Marilyn Monroe’s lovely face to chilling wartime ugliness, the irrefutable thread linking the pieces together was humanity, rendering the exhibition all the more poignant.

The Annenberg Space for Photography is a boon for the community as well as an intriguing step towards the future of interactive art. In the apt words of Ansel Adams, it’s time we began looking into photographs, as opposed to simply looking at them.