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The images of 1940 Los Angeles that photographer Ansel Adams shot for Fortune magazine, then put away and forgot for awhile, are getting their first public display other than on websites. The drkrm gallery on Spring Street in Downtown has printed a selection of the 200-plus photos and will put them on exhibit starting Feb. 18. You could make a pretty substantial show out of just Adams' images at the Lockheed and Douglas aircraft plants (in Burbank and Santa Monica, respectively), on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills and at the Olympic Trailer Court in Santa Monica. But there's even more.
Another cool thing about the collection: when Adams turned up the photos in his archive, he donated the whole batch to the Los Angeles Public Library for a token $125. Photo librarian Christina Rice has posted more than 200 of the images on the LAPL website. The gallery is creating new silver-gelatin prints from the original negatives. They will be on sale to benefit the library.
Above: From the long-gone Ocean Park Pier facing north up Santa Monica Beach.
More things that are gone below:
Clockwise from top left:The Brown Derby on Wilshire, Court Street railway that rose up Bunker Hill from Broadway between 1st and Temple streets, oil derrick on La Cienega Blvd. near Beverly Blvd., children at Olympic Trailer Court in Santa Monica.
All photos by Ansel Adams, Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection