HAVE A "PAWTRIOTIC" DAY!

Independence_Paw'rade_LMarcus-81, originally uploaded by fotonomous.

Coco Puffz at the Best Friends Los Angeles Independence Paw'rade.
July 2, 2011 Studio City, CA

© Lydia Marcus Photography

For a full set of photos from the Paw'rade go to Lydia Marcus Photography on Facebook.

LYDIA, LACMA, & URBAN LIGHT

At the end of summer 2009 I received an extraordinary email - LACMA (the Los Angeles County Museum of Art) wanted to use one of my photographs on a tote bag they would sell in their gift shops and online store. The photo was an image that I had taken of Urban Light - Chris Burden's sculpture of 202 restored antique cast iron Los Angeles street lights from the 1920's and 1930's.

Although Urban Light was only installed at LACMA recently (2008), it instantly became an iconic site in our great City of Angels. Day or night, drive by LACMA and you are likely to see people strolling between the lamps and taking photos of themselves amidst the lights. It is literally one of the most photographed things in Los Angeles.

LACMA found my shot among thousands of other Urban Light photos seen in Google images. When they asked if they could use my photo, to say I was floored is putting it mildly.

I grew up at LACMA and the La Brea Tarpits. LACMA is truly nostalgic and meaningful ground to me. Some of my favorite childhood memories were spent walking the grounds with my Aunt Lisa and Uncle Fritz, eating lunch at the cafeteria, tiptoeing across rocks in the meandering stream that cuts through the park, and climbing on the giant bear and sloth statues. Then as a 16 year old high schooler learning to use an SLR in Beginning Photography, LACMA became my muse as I took my first artistic shots of the architecture and galleries using a hand-me-down Canon AE-1 Program.

I may never have work hanging in the galleries of LACMA (it's not even something I aspire to), but to have my work sold there and represent Urban Light is a thrill.

My parents were longtime members of LACMA and I have been too. That the sales of my tote bag benefit the museum in any small way gives me great pleasure.

Nearly a year after first contacting me, the tote bag began selling in the gift shops. And this week, it's finally for sale in their updated online store. So after much anticipation and excitement, my tote bag "baby" is finally out in the world and I can share this great news.

And LACMA has created a special promo coupon code for me!

Use the coupon code LYDIA10 until January 5, 2011 to receive a 10% discount when purchasing the Urban Light tote bag from the LACMA online store.

LACMA members get their 10% discount in addition to this coupon if they enter their membership number in the comment box on the order form. The membership discount will not show up on the order - but LACMA applies it when they finalize the sale.

Me posing in front of Urban Light with my tote bag.


A screen grab of the tote bag on the LACMA website.


Here's the write up from the LACMA online store.

Urban Light Tote Bag

$28.00
Member Price $25.20

This great tote is supersized to hold everything you could possibly want, including a lap top. The image on the front of the bag is a detail of the sculpture Urban Light, by Chris Burden, which can be seen in front of LACMA's entrance on Wilshire Boulevard. It has quickly become a must-see destination in Los Angeles.

We asked local photographer Lydia Marcus for permission to use her great image once we spotted it on the web. Marcus is a proud native Los Angeleno and self-proclaimed unapologetic Valley girl whose photographs have appeared in JPG Magazine, Light Leaks, and AOL City Guide Los Angeles. She uses antique Polaroid cameras and contemporary digital formats to capture L.A.'s car culture and vintage neon signage.

Bag is approximately 18 3/4 square with photo on front and solid black back

- Interior zipper pocket approximately 6 1/4 inches square
- Water resistant coating inside
- Sturdy 1 1/2 inch strap expands in length from approximately 28 1/2 inchs to approximately 54 inches
- Imported exclusively for LACMA

SKU #11896


My original photo of Urban Light that started it all.


Another shot of me at Urban Light.


Information about Urban Light from LACMA.

Chris Burden
Urban Light, 2008
Sculpture, (Two-hundred and two) restored cast iron antique street lamps

This forest of city street lights, called “Urban Light” was created by artist Chris Burden. Despite initial appearances, the arrangement is not a perfect grid. Depending on where the viewer stands, the lamps arrange themselves in different angles and arrays.

These 202 cast iron lamps once lit the streets of Los Angeles. Burden bought one at the Rose Bowl flea market, and soon collecting and restoring street lights became an obsession. He painted them all the same neutral gray, in order to draw the eye to all the different varieties of cast iron decoration.

Burden says that street lamps like these were symbols of a civilized and sophisticated city—safe after dark and beautiful to behold. The lights all still work, and they are now powered by solar energy. They are switched on every night at dusk, until 10pm. At night, Burden says his sculpture becomes transformed into “a building with a roof of light.”

Interview with Chris Burden from L.A. Times.

A glow in the dark
Chris Burden's collection of restored lamps will put LACMA in 'Urban Light.'

January 30, 2008|Susan Freudenheim

I've been driving by these buildings for 40 years, and it's always bugged me how this institution turned its back on the city," Chris Burden said the other day as he sat in a new public plaza facing Wilshire Boulevard at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Linking the soon-to-open Broad Contemporary Art Museum and the museum's original campus, this plaza is taking shape as the setting for Burden's largest sculpture to date, "Urban Light," an installation of 202 restored and fully operational vintage streetlights.

Wilshire is one of the main thoroughfares of the city, but LACMA's multiple tall, imposing and mostly unadorned facades have done little to address the endless stream of traffic that flows by, Burden noted. There's nothing like the grand Beaux Arts entry staircase that serves as a meeting place and a lure for visitors to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. "What faces Wilshire," Burden said, "hasn't been very inviting."


The opening of the BCAM, designed by Renzo Piano to hold contemporary art, will mark a new beginning for the 42-year-old museum, and Burden, 61, hopes that his monumental installation of 1920s and '30s-era lamps will become both a city landmark and a more fitting entryway to the sprawling campus. Nearly all of Burden's cast-iron lamps once lighted the streets of this region, and their variety in a very literal way represents distinct styles that distinguish different neighborhoods -- present and past. Arranged so the visitor can walk among the fixtures, "Urban Light" is a nod, Burden said, to what a museum should be: "It sounds kind of corny, but when you walk through the lamps into the museum, it's like a pathway to enlightenment. It's symbolic."

Arranged in strict formation, with the tallest standing about 30 feet in the center at the back, flanked by others of various heights and forms, with the smallest standing about 20 feet tall, the lamps look like a platoon of soldiers ready to march. All their parts are original, collected by Burden over seven years. The bases display elaborate floral and geometric patterns, and the fluted shafts and glass globes that cap them have been meticulously cleaned, painted and refurbished to create an exuberant glow.

THE COMPOSER

Digital Photo Academy offers free Lensbaby workshops around the country. Lensbaby are known for their lenses that give a "sweet spot of focus surrounded by graduated blur." I took one of the classes in Los Angeles taught by George Simian. For the three hour seminar, we were loaned Lensbaby's top of the line model, the Composer. I already own a Lensbaby 2.0 but haven't used it much. The Composer costs more than the 2.0 (now known as the Muse) - $270 vs $100/150 (plastic/glass lens) but the Composer is MUCH easier to use and offers a lot more control. With the 2.0 or Muse you have to constantly squeeze and bend the lens to focus, while the Composer allows you to twist in a focus spot and keep it there hands free. I think the Composer is definitely worth the extra dough and if it had been manufactured when I decided to purchase my Lensbaby, I definitely would have bought the Composer instead. But if you like a LOT of unpredictability and variety in your photos, the 2.0 or Muse may be perfect for you.
- Lydia Marcus















© Lydia Marcus / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed October 14, 2010 in Los Angeles, CA.

THE QUEER FILM EXPERT

I interviewed Jenni Olson for my documentary "Desert Hearts Mon Amour" and shot this with my Nikon D80 / 50mm f/1.8 lens after we finished rolling. I thought the DGA little theater (aka DGA Video / DGA 3) was the perfect setting to interview Jenni. We both had seen many great films in that theater in the early days of Outfest.

Jenni Olson is director of e-commerce at WolfeVideo.com and one of the world's leading experts on LGBT cinema history. Author of The Queer Movie Poster Book (2005, Chronicle Books), Jenni was also one of the founders of PlanetOut.com where she established the massive queer film industry resource, PopcornQ. She continues to write about queer films, as well as curating, collecting, and creating them. Her feature debut, The Joy of Life is now available on DVD. Her website is www.butch.org.





Jenni Olson
© Lydia Marcus / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed July 11, 2010 in Los Angeles, CA at the Directors Guild of America

OUTFEST 2010

A Tigress & A Cougar - Meowwwww! "Momma" Dearest & Me, Outfest Opening Night Party.

Outfest has been a summertime tradition for me since 1987. This year is the 28th Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

Tickets are still available for many films, panels, and events. Go to outfest.org.





Photo © Lydia Marcus / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed July 8, 2010 in Downtown Los Angeles

MY PHOTO & BLOG INSPIRED AN LAIST STORY

Occasionally I contribute photos to the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr. I try and put things in that are a bit unusual, different, or that I think may pique the editors interest. Putting a photo in the pool gives LAist the right to use it on their site. I've been lucky a handful of times when LAist has used my photo in one of their daily postings. They always give photo credit and a link back to photo on the photographer's Flickr feed. I like having my photos run on LAist because they spotlight Los Angeles in a unique way and support local photographers by publishing their work to a wider audience.

On Tuesday, LAist posted the story Capturing The Summer Solstice. They not only used one of my photos from Griffith Observatory, they also directly quoted me in the article.

Quite an honor. - Lydia Marcus

Here's the story:

SUMMER SOLSTICE

Today I visited Griffith Observatory to witness Summer Solstice from the vantage point of the Transit Corridor - think of it as Griffith's high tech version of Stonehenge.

Sunlight hits the Transit Corridor at 12:55pm on June 21, 2010 marking high noon and this year's Summer Solstice - the day the sun is at it's highest position all year long, also making it the longest day of the year.


This is the Transit Corridor. Laura Danly PhD (Curator of Education at Griffith Observatory) explained Summer Solstice and the Transit Corridor to observers and a cameraman from Channel 7 news.



"Like ancient monuments to the stars, the Griffith Observatory was built to create specific effects when the solar system is aligned for the solstices. On the summer solstice, for the Sun’s “local noon” appearance, at its highest position in the sky all year, the Sun’s projected image crosses the engraved meridian arc of the Gottlieb Transit Corridor on the west side of the Observatory. The solstice local noon occurs at 12:55 pm. The northernmost sunset and the end of the longest day of the year align with an engraved marker and stone line laid into pavement on the terrace. The solstice sunset occurs at 8:08 pm. For 2010, the Solstice is on a Monday when the Observatory is closed, but you can still enjoy the architectural phenomenon." (From http://golosangeles.about.com)

Some misc shots from Griffith:

A crow scares off a red tailed hawk infringing on it's territory in the sky above Griffith.



Greek Key and Arches at Griffith



The world famous Hollywood sign viewed from Griffith's front lawn.



Hikers enjoying a local trail below Griffith.



I have a thing for signage, especially those with icons or drawings. This sign in particular is very important in light of the terrible fires that engulfed Griffith Park in 2008.


Here's a link to a Wiki article about the Solstice.

Enjoy the summer! - Lydia Marcus :-)

Summer Solstice at the Transit Corridor, Griffith Observatory
© Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed June 21, 2010 at Griffith Observatory in Los Angeles, CA

Photographed using a Nikon D40 / Nikon 18-200mm VR lens.

HAPPY PRIDE WEEKEND!

The comedians of Chelsea Lately did a bunch of funny PSAs to celebrate 40 years of Pride in Los Angeles. All the videos can be found the CSWLAPRIDE You Tube channel.

Here are a few of my favorites:









To get more info about L.A. Pride events go to lapride.org and facebook.

TRADESMAN

© Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
May 8, 2010 in Culver City, CA

Photographed using a Nikon D80 and Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8 lens.
Nikon D80 10.2MP Digital SLR Camera (Body only)

A JINDO WITH A VIEW

© Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed February 7, 2010 in Encino, CA at Westridge-Canyonback Wilderness Park

Photographed with a Nikon D40


Photographed with a Nikon 18-55mm

CALI STROBIST

This week I did a strobist style portrait session with Cali. The set up was a red seamless paper background, 2 Nikon Speedlights (an SB-800 and SB-600) controlled off camera in Commander mode by my Nikon D80. Each light was mounted on a stand with a small Photoflex umbrella. The black outer shell of the umbrella was removed so that the Speedlights could shoot through the white side. Initially I tried shooting into the umbrellas, but with Cali being so dark, there was just too much light lost and it wasn't looking bright enough. Even shooting through, I had to plump up the light settings on both Speedlights to +3 stops. First shot above was done at f/4.5 at 1/45, second was f/6.7 at 1/45.

Cali is remarkable patient and focused for a puppy. She will sit and pose for quite some time if you have her ball and chuck it in her line of sight. :-)

Photo Credits © Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Cali, 1 year old
Photographed March 25, 2010, Los Angeles, CA

L DIA

With a little creative cropping I made this sign come pretty close to my name. I framed it to just take the "L" from the preceding word "Del" and included the "Dia" that followed. I few friends call me "Dia" - short for Lydia - so when I noticed the L lingering so close to the Dia I knew I had something!

Photo credit © Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed February 20, 2010 in Downtown Los Angeles at Olvera Street.

BLEND OUT

When I created this blog I wrote that fotonomous is the "Web identity of Lydia Marcus, an individualist, Piscean & native Los Angeleno (Encino/WEHO) raised in diametrically opposed communities shaped by culture, status, sexuality, and spirituality. This multifaceted upbringing informed her ability & desire to always seek to blend out instead of blend in."

This past Saturday when I saw this ad covering a downtown Los Angeles building (it's part of an advertisement for the new Hyundai Sonata) I was pretty excited. I've never seen the words "Blend Out" written anywhere before. Maybe Hyundai has been to my blog! ;-)

Photo credit © Lydia Marcus 2010 / www.lydiamarcus.com
Photographed February 20, 2010 in Downtown Los Angeles.

NARCISSISTIC EXPRESSION

We all do it - self-portraits that is - whether we use reflection or shadow as our means or merely extend one arm outward as an organically connected tripod.


Self-Portrait, holding Polaroid SX-70 Alpha, Encino, CA 2006

This is the image that I use the most online as the photographic representation of me (it's the image that greets you here on my blog, and on my flickr and twitter feeds) is a self-portrait that I shot in one of the bathrooms of my house. I like bathroom light, sometimes it reminds me of candlelight and it's usually a little softer and moody and the mirrors usually provide nice soft fill light. Holding my beloved Polaroid SX-70 Alpha in one hand, I used my other hand to hold my Polaroid SLR 680 SE and take the photo. I had to try it several times to get the expression and framing just right. I like how my eye connects with the viewer and that my expression is sexy and assured. I'm wearing no makeup whatsoever - what you see is what you get - natural me. But there are some tricks too, by using a slightly higher angle, I get more definition around the jaw line and eliminate any double chin. I like this picture the best because it distills me best as how I see me.

The reason I bring up self-portraits is that yesterday I saw The Sum of Myself: Photographic Self-Portraits from the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection at BCAM (Broad Contemporary Art Museum). The exhibition's last day is tomorrow, January 3, so I urge you to go this weekend. LACMA & BCAM have a great pay what you wish policy after 5pm, so you can even go for free or a slight donation.

Strangely, BCAM doesn't have an actual webpage devoted to the exhibit, but if you go here, you can scroll down and find a blurb about it. There's also a link here to the Irmas' collection online that has more info and photos.

What really struck me about the collection is the extra creativity people have when photographing themselves. Nearly all the shots represent truly thinking outside the box. Plus it's a chance to see prints from amazing photographers including Nan Goldin, Robert Mapplethorpe (represented in a self-portrait as a young man in drag and in a second intense portrait near the end of his life when ravaged by AIDS), Andre Kertész (the master of working with distortion from mirrors), Catherine Opie, William Wegman, Diane Arbus, Weegee, Walker Evans, and Lee Friedlander (whose buzz cut shadow self-portrait on the back of a woman's head and fur coat was pure genius). Honestly there's so much incredible work in this exhibit that it's the kind of show that gives me the good kind of headache that comes from inspirational overload.

Here are a bunch of my self-portraits:


Self-portrait, costumed as Andy Warhol for Halloween, Woodland Hills, CA 2006


Self-portrait, top of a boulder at Stoney Point, Chatsworth, CA 2009


Self-portrait, ornament on the Venice Canal, Venice, CA 2008


Self-portrait, mirror in antique shop, Oatman, AZ 2009



Self-portrait, mirror at Bagdad Cafe, Amboy, CA 2009


Self-portrait, reflected off a building at the Getty Center, Los Angeles, CA 2009


Self-portrait, mirror on trolley in Beverly Hills, CA 2009


Self-portrait, Stoney Point, Chatsworth, CA 2009


Self-portrait, shadow behind Tom's Welding, Barstow, CA 2009

And here are some self-portraits on display in The Sum of Myself: Photographic Self-Portraits from the Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection at BCAM (Broad Contemporary Art Museum).


Clockwise from top: Nan Goldin, Self Portrait in the Mirror at the Lodge, Belmont, MA, 1998, Diane Arbus, Self Portrait in Mirror, 1945 (detail), Robert Mapplethorpe, Self Portrait, 1988. All images in this post: The Audrey and Sydney Irmas Collection
(Image pulled from the LACMA blog UNFRAMED)


Bruce Nauman, Study for Holograms, 1970, Catherine Opie, Self Portrait, 1993
(Image pulled from the LACMA blog UNFRAMED)

FUN! FAIR! FOTOS!

For the first time, I submitted my photography to the L.A. County Fair Photography Competition
(aka Millard Sheets Center for the Arts at Fairplex Photography Competition)

I sent in the maximum photos allowed and to my amazement all three images placed and two even got special "Best" mention.

The theme and categories change every year and this year's theme is “Recycled: Fashion, Food, and Lifestyle in Advertising Photography."

In the past, photographers had to print and frame their own work for exhibition, but this year the Fair had all winning photographs professionally printed and mounted, and when the Fair ends in October, the prints will be mailed to the winners.

Here are my shots:

“Rochelle” Fashion Category (Polaroid 195 / Expired Polaroid ID-UV Film)


“Time Traveler” Lifestyle Category "Best Alternative Method in Category" (Polaroid 110B / Expired Film)


“50's Livin'” Lifestyle Category "Best Depiction of Lifestyle in Category" (Nikon S2 Coolpix)


Photo Credits: Lydia Marcus

2009 L.A. County Fair
1101 W. McKinley Ave.,
Pomona, CA 91768

The exhibit is in the Tapestry Building under the Grandstand from September 5 - October 4, 2009.