June 2019 Photography
The June Gardens: So this is how June ends in Hollywood and Beverly Hills. Just about everything imaginable is in bloom, being dramatic, showing off. That makes sense. That’s life out here. ~ Saturday, June 29, 2019
The Edge of the City: These are the giant glass boxes on Wilshire Boulevard where Beverly Hills ends and the Miracle Mile begins, on the way downtown, to the actual City of Los Angeles out east. But this is urban enough, the real edge of the city. It seems to be intentionally intimidating. ~ Wednesday, June 26, 2019
Sensing the End: Ivar Avenue, Hollywood – the street where Nathaniel West was living when he wrote “The Day of the Locust” – his famous 1939 novel about the end of the world – starting in Hollywood. The street hasn’t changed much. It’s still a dark place, now with the Frances Howard Goldwyn Library – the Hollywood Regional Library of the Los Angeles Public Library system – right in the middle of things – from Frank Gehry, 1986 – before his buildings got all swoopy. This is just hard and cold. And it always feels like the end of the world on Ivar Avenue. ~ Tuesday, June 25, 2019
That Intersection: Wilshire Boulevard at Cloverdale – the Dominguez-Wilshire Building, 1930, by Morgan, Walls & Clements, at 5410 Wilshire Boulevard – mainly the work of Stiles O. Clements (1883-1966) and named after its developers, the Dominguez family, the heirs to the first land grant given in California by King Carlos III of Spain. King Carlos didn’t expect this. The intersection is unsettling. ~ Monday, June 24, 2019
A Soft Opening: Summer opened in Los Angeles with light rain all morning, then low clouds all day. That was a Friday this year. The first Saturday of summer was much the same, but no rain – just subtle light in the local gardens. Here in Hollywood that’s called a soft opening. ~ Saturday, June 22, 2019
The Women: There’s been a cultural shift. The age of the woman has begun, or so it seems in the Los Angeles street art. That used to be a man’s world – the hipster, the rebel – but they’ll have to move over now. They’re just not important anymore. ~ Wednesday, June 19, 2019
That Duck: Mallards are boring. But the Muscovy wanted to talk. What was he saying? Only he knew. It was a dark morning at Heavenly Pond, up Coldwater Canyon, above Beverly Hills and just below Mulholland Drive, at the edge of the Santa Monica Mountains. The city seemed far away. And that duck was talking. ~ Tuesday, June 18, 2019
A Stretch of Sunset: Hollywood can be dark – a stretch of Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood – Guitar Row – between Fairfax and La Brea – on a sunless June afternoon. ~ Monday, June 17, 2019
June Jewels: This is what’s hidden in the corners of the local gardens here in Los Angeles in June – hidden jewels. ~ Saturday, June 15, 2019
Hollywood Subdued: This is Hollywood without the sunshine – new glass and dramatic angles, the odd Capitol Records building on Vine, the Yucca Vine Tower, 6305-09 Yucca Street (at Vine), H. L. Gogerty of Gogerty & Weyl Architects, 1928 – and two faces at the Avalon Hollywood at 1735 North Vine. That opened in 1927 as the Hollywood Playhouse, it was the El Capitan in the forties, then the NBC Radio Theater, then the Hollywood Palace. It hosted the first years of “The Lawrence Welk Show” and now it’s a techno-thump EDM dance club. But it doesn’t matter. This was a black-and-white day in Hollywood. ~ Friday, June 14, 2019
Russian Hollywood: On the east side of Hollywood, on the other side of Western Avenue, one block south of Sunset Boulevard, hidden behind the now-abandoned Deluxe Studios, the giant film-processing and postproduction house that had been there since 1916 and finally shut down in 2014 when everything went digital, it’s Russia – the magnificent Holy Transfiguration Russian Orthodox Church. It’s stunning. This is Russian Hollywood, even if the neighbors aren’t happy about it. ~ Thursday, June 13, 2019
The California Streets: Endless sunshine helps. The old Spanish Revival apartment buildings help. The street art helps. Even all the new hand-painted commercial art helps. It all comes together. It all says Los Angeles. ~ Wednesday, June 12, 2019
Coastal Fog: Malibu, Pacific Coast Highway at Big Rock Canyon, early afternoon, the coastal fog finally lifting, for an hour or two. It will be back soon enough. This is June in Southern California. It’s wonderful too. ~ Tuesday, June 11, 2019
Actual Hollyhocks: The restoration is complete – the 1919 Frank Lloyd Wright Hollyhock House on Olive Hill at the other end of Hollywood Boulevard, but now with actual hollyhocks in bloom. It’s about time. And the new mural at the bottom of Olive Hill is a nice touch too. ~ Monday, June 10, 2019
Celebrity Roses: There are rose varieties that are named after celebrities. They’re in Beverly Hills, in Beverly Gardens Park. But there’s much more there. ~ Saturday, June 8, 2019
Late Light: It’s June in Los Angeles. The week was dark, but the sun finally came out late on Friday afternoon. It was worth the wait. This is Museum Row on Wilshire Boulevard, looking good. ~ Friday, June 7, 2019
No Sun: “June Gloom is a Southern California term for a weather pattern that results in cloudy, overcast skies with cool temperatures during the late spring and early summer. Low-altitude stratus clouds form over the cool water of the California Current, and spread overnight into the coastal regions of Southern California. The overcast skies often are accompanied by fog and drizzle, though usually not rain. June Gloom usually clears up between mid-morning and early afternoon, depending on the strength of the marine layer, and gives way to sunny skies. On a strong June Gloom day, the clouds and fog may extend inland to the valleys and Inland Empire and may persist into the mid-afternoon or evening.” That happened. El Porto, Manhattan Beach – Thursday, June 6, 2019
Mom: Street artists love their mothers too. But it’s more complicated than that. It’s always more complicated than that. ~ Wednesday, June 5, 2019
The Real Past: The portal to the past of Los Angeles is the Broadway Arcade Building, a three-level glass-roofed shopping arcade connecting two twelve-story office towers, one facing Broadway, one facing Spring Street, in downtown Los Angeles. The glass-roofed skylight is an imitation of the Burlington Arcade in London. The exterior is fantasy Spanish Revival mixed with Beaux Art touches, from the architects Kenneth McDonald and Maurice Couchot. The arcade opened on February 15, 1924, and it’s still open. Walk through it, from Spring Street to Broadway, and suddenly there’s gold Art Deco next to an Italianate wedding cake of a building. Turn left and it’s the Old Bank District – with old banks from the decades before the glass arcade was built. The past is here, all of it. ~ Tuesday, June 4, 2019
In a Strange Hollywood: Mondays are always problematic. Mondays in June in Hollywood are even more so. It’s the June gloom – the deep marine layer all day, and the dark skies, and all along Whitley Avenue, the old fantasy apartment buildings from the late twenties, just before movies had sound. They’re ghosts. So are the Art Deco buildings from the next decade down on the corner, on Hollywood Boulevard itself. They’re ghosts too. ~ Monday, June 3, 2019
Shots in the Dark: June in Los Angeles is dark. It’s the June Gloom – the marine layer that rolls in before dawn and stays all day, almost every day. The sun will be back in July. In the meantime, in the dark, the local gardens turn subtle. ~ Saturday, June 1, 2019
Just Above Sunset 