Admirers of Ansel Adams’ photography can now see a new set of prints exhibited for the first time at a downtown gallery, "drkrm." This series of images is strikingly different from classic Adams’ landscapes from New Mexico and California’s Yosemite Valley. These images from the Los Angeles Library’s historic collection portray Los Angeles in late 1940.
Most of the photos are in a style more closely associated with William Eggleston’s portraits of everyday life in America. They show a Los Angeles markedly different than the world saw in tourist and film promotions. That is Los Angeles under grey autumn skies with trailer courts, food trucks and assembly lines working to create an “industrial strength” metropolis.
This special exhibition is significant for both Los Angeles history and photographic history. It shows a Los Angeles that is hard at work, building airplanes, operating laundries, selling bottled beverages one drink at a time. Like almost all Ansel Adams’ photography, the prints are untinted black and white. Unlike his better known landscapes, most subjects are portrayed against dim backgrounds showing overcast skies.
The way that these rare and historic images have made their way to a downtown Los exhibition at a private gallery has created exciting possibilities that many more exhibitions and public sales will be possible in the future. The Los Angeles Public Library photographic collection includes the Security Pacific Bank collection of a quarter million photographs as well as thousands of news and interview photographs from the legendary Herald-Examiner newspaper group. The historic Hollywood Golden Age of Cinema photos rotate on display regularly at the Hollywood Branch. Select images have been printed for gift cards and calendars. But this is the first time that part of the collection has been reprinted for exhibition and sale at a private gallery. It was relatively easy to arrange and only took about four months from selecting the Adams images to be reprinted to opening the exhibition to the public after obtaining all the reproduction rights and materials needed to make museum quality prints.
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