LOS ANGELES — I entered UCLA’s Ackerman Student Union hoping to blend in with the student body, find my way to a recently uncovered mural, and document the public’s reactions with an inconspicuous pinhole camera. But the building is a maze of chain eateries. And, after I pass a Carl’s Jr. for the second time, I accept that I’m lost. I turn right at the Jamba Juice and ask for directions.
Michael Gabel
Michael Gabel is a photographer and writer based in Los Angeles. When not covering or contributing to the visual art scene, you'll find him high on a mountain somewhere. Follow his work and adventures on Twitter: @Michael_Gabel.
Posted inArt
Historic Mexican Mural Preserved in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES — “You’re taking photos of the screen.” I turn around on the América Tropical Interpretive Center’s viewing platform, perched above a waking Olvera Street in Downtown Los Angeles.
Posted inArt
Excavating Architectural Photography
LOS ANGELES — A small room at the Getty Center in Los Angeles contains the entire history of architectural photography. In fewer than thirty photographs, In Focus: Architecture charts the timeline of the medium since it usurped drawing as the primary means of building documentation in the mid-nineteenth century.
Posted inArt
At Los Angeles Bus Stops, a Seat for Public Art
LOS ANGELES — The Do ArT Foundation of L.A. teamed up with Montreal’s Mouvement Art Public (Make Art Public) this summer to … do make art public. By recuperating unsold advertising space on bus benches around downtown L.A., the organizations brought the work of two photographers to the streets.
Posted inArt
Vanquished Modernism Reconsidered in Pink
LOS ANGELES — Rudolph Schindler was ahead of his time. A protégé of Frank Lloyd Wright and an early adapter of modernism, he introduced a revolutionary form of architecture to Los Angeles in the early 1900s.
Unfortunately, at the time, no one cared.
Posted inArt
The Architectural Poetry of Lebbeus Woods
LOS ANGELES — “Yeah, yeah, Lebbeus Woods: conceptual architecture … ” said a friend and recent architecture school grad just before I dodged beach traffic and made my way downtown for a new exhibit at The Southern California Institute of Architecture “ … never built anything.”
