Article taken from the Wall Street Journal
APRIL 23, 2009
By ARNIE COOPER
The best view of the recently opened Annenberg Space for Photography is actually from the Annenberg Foundation's 10th-floor offices in the adjacent skyscraper. Not that it'll give you a deeper appreciation for the 10,000-square-foot circle-in-a-square gallery's various works. Rather, looking down at the roof, with its varnished rocks configured into the Annenberg logo, puts the entire endeavor in the proper context. This isn't your ordinary "collecting institution" with an entrance fee and an archive. Unlike other Los Angeles museums dedicated to photography, the Annenberg Space is focused strictly on presentation rather than curatorial acquisitions. In many cases, the images purchased for shows will be given back to the photographers as gifts.
The idea for the photography gallery took root in 2007 after the foundation moved to Century City from Westwood. "Knowing this was the site of the former Shubert Theater and ABC Entertainment, the trustees decided to develop it as a cultural space," says Leonard Aube, the foundation's managing director. One reason was Wallis Annenberg's passion for photography, but equally important was the opportunity for the organization to deepen its relationship with the community.
"We wanted to fundamentally change this perception that the Annenberg Foundation is all about a wallet that dispenses money," Mr. Aube says. Begun by TV Guide creator Walter Annenberg, who died in 2002, the foundation was run by his widow, Leonore, until her death early last month. Their daughter Wallis is now president.
Annenberg Foundation philanthropic work has touched everything from theaters in California, New York and Pennsylvania to such art institutions as the Philadelphia Museum of Art and New York's Metropolitan, as well as the schools of communication at the University of Pennsylvania and the University of Southern California. But Mr. Aube says the photo gallery is different -- that it "is an extension of our values." This means "focusing on the human condition." Images cover African refugee camps and Taliban fighters in Afghanistan, torsos bedecked in tattoos and convertibles with teenagers cruising the beach. But there are also celebrity shots, including the classic 1961 image of Marilyn Monroe draped in a silk bed sheet, a pensive 20-something Brigitte Bardot with a heart-shaped blond coif, and a shadow-enshrouded Judy Garland staring into the distance with teary eyes.
After all, this is L.A. -- or should I say "L8S ANG3LES"? That's the name of the space's inaugural show, whose odd typography refers to its eight main contributors -- John Baldessari, Catherine Opie, Greg Gorman, Douglas Kirkland, Tim Street-Porter, Julius Shulman, Lauren Greenfield and Carolyn Cole -- and three Los Angeles Times Staff photographers, Lawrence Ho, Genaro Molina and Kirk McKoy. Together, the 11 photographers' take on humanity features images in six genres: fine art, architecture, documentary, fashion, photojournalism and celebrity portraits.
You might wonder how the thousand photos on display could be squeezed into this relatively small area. Only about 80 prints are on the walls; the rest are projected via a digital system that Mr. Aube says yields seven times the resolution of a plasma television.
Amid the chaos just one day before the space's gala premiere, Mr. Aube is taking me on a tour of the building with its many photographic allusions. "In the early stages of thinking about the development of the space, we sat with photographers and their equipment . . . and had this conversation about the vocabulary of photography," Mr. Aube says while pointing to the wall at the front entrance intended to mimic the old silver screens used for slideshows. "This building is a juxtaposition of the relationship of classic photography's root and the embracing of the digital world."
The structure, by DMJM Design, is also meant to recall, however subtly, its benefactor. The honed lava wall beyond the entrance is not just a throwback to the old Kodak classic grayscales. It's also a reference to the stunning lava wall in the parlor of the Annenbergs' Rancho Mirage estate. In fact, the residential theme is evident both in the works displayed and the building itself.
The first images you encounter are those of Mr. Shulman, best known for capturing the modernist homes of architectural visionaries such as Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler and Frank Lloyd Wright. On display here is "Case Study House #22" by architect Pierre Koenig. The 1960 black-and-white photo shows two women in cocktail dresses conversing in the sleek Stahl House that hovers precariously over the emblematic grid of lights that has come to define L.A.
Nearby are two small couches where visitors will eventually be able to flip through photo albums of visitor-generated content. (Mr. Aube says one idea for 2010 is to have the public submit photos of their mothers for Mother's Day.) This offers a contrast with the touch-screen coffee tables loaded with the show's photos, images that can be stretched, pulled and twisted like those on an iPhone.
Across the way is a display of Greg Gorman's classic black-and-white portraiture, which includes a profile of Phillip Johnson, a seductive nude shot of the model Iman, and a shot of a frail Betty Davis smoking a cigarette in an oversized chair.
Just before we head to the reading room, Mr. Aube points out John Baldessari's "Astronauts and Businessmen," a 1988 print of three astronauts towering over a boardroom portrait of nine men in suits, their faces all obscured by black and colored circles of vinyl paint. "He won't tell you he's a photographer as much as he's an artist," Mr. Aube says.
The reading room includes books by the show's contributors along with oversized volumes such as "I Am Camera" and "National Geographic's Wide Angle." A video screen loops through more than 100 Los Angeles Times photos depicting milestones such as the construction of Dodger Stadium and the opening of Union Station, as well as catastrophic events like the 1971 Sylmar earthquake.
Next to a stocked kitchen reserved for special events is a digital gallery whose design mimics a camera's inner workings. The circular room hints at a convex lens; the ceiling's iris-like design recalls a lens's aperture. Even the seating, limited to just five or six small circular couches -- a few of which are red -- recalls the red grip found on some high-end Nikon cameras. Chances are you'll be standing -- on a floor made of recycled tractor tires, which is both easy on the feet and perfect for light absorption.
The 20-minute program on the 7-by-14-foot screen details the works of the show's contributors and their reflections about working in Los Angeles. You'll see Mr. Shulman bring out the first camera he ever used and hear Mr. Kirkland recounting that 1961 night he shot Marilyn Monroe. But Los Angeles Times Photo Editor Kirk McCoy, who knows L.A. as well as anybody, sums the city up best: "We celebrate diversity here, and I think if you stand in one place long enough in Los Angeles the world will come to you."
Mr. Cooper is a writer based in Santa Barbara, Calif.
