My last trip of the year: a week-long expedition to Pasadena. I had time to visit a few places before and after my meeting, and I’ve just finished scanning and developing all the film I took there together with a short trip I made to Marseille immediately afterwards. That’s 12 rolls in total (that brings me to almost 130 rolls for this year!); I’ll say it again, things were much simpler when we didn’t have to scan everything and could just make contact prints and leave it at that. Yes, I will be finishing my 52 rolls in a blast of Tri-X. You can see why Hollywood is in California: the light is wonderful. I’m going split up my posts roughly by place as it seems a shame to throw everything together. Finally, thanks to Barbara M. (mombam) and others for suggestions of where to visit! I see I managed to hit most of them despite the very limited amount of time I had.
Actually the very first interesting thing that happened to me after I arrived was that I was invited to a friend’s house where a visiting Swedish chef was cooking for everyone! But I was too jet-lagged to take many pictures and those that I did take didn’t turn out very well. So, let’s go straight to downtown LA the next day.
First stop, Bradbury building and Grand Central market. There was a nice atmosphere in the market, I had a good coffee there, which I certainly needed to get over my jet-lag. The Bradbury building, as most people reading this probably know, is one of those iconic LA structures which has featured in countless movies. From the outside it doesn’t look too special, but inside there are wonderful victorian balustrades and tiling. Unfortunately, there is a Subway sandwich shop in the ground floor, so a certain odour permeates the building …
Next I went to see Hauser and Wirth, a warehouse converted to art-gallery, and afterwards had lunch in Little Tokyo. There was not a lot of people around, because it was only a day or so after thanksgiving. And yes, please film here!
Next, the Geffen, where was a great Doug Aitken show, and next to which I found the “National center for Democracy”: closed for vacation (I guess :-)). That’s a telephone you see there on the left, illuminated.
Finally, Gehry’s Disney concert hall, and a view of downtown. Can you believe it, the weather was extremely bad the first few days I spent there: terrible rain…
Next post, Santa Monica.
Technical. Photographs were taken with a Leica M6 and a Summicron f2.0/50mm. Film: Kodak Tri-X 400 developed in HC110 B for 6mins.
52 rolls 
Brings back memories. I grew up in West Wood in the early 70’s. I really like the beaten up door.
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Thanks. Would have certainly liked to see more. The weather was bad those days, so I couldn’t spend so much time on the street…
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So glad you were able to follow up on some of my suggestions. You will find LOTS of buildings in that area that are on offer for filming – probably more lucrative than trying to find long term tenants for many of them. What did you think of the Disney concert hall? Did you see the Samurai Santa in LIttle Tokyo? Sorry about the rain – we seem to be having our first reasonably rainy fall/winter in about eight to ten years. But it’s still lovely here, I think. Can’t wait to see the rest of your posts
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Thanks for all the comments! I missed the Samurai Santa unfortunately. Yes, the Disney hall is wonderful. I would have liked to get onto the roof, but it was closed, and there was heavy rain! And I didn’t get inside the Broad. Hopefully I will be back in LA before too long…
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Just FYI the Broad is free but you need to book tickets on line so plan ahead on your next visit. The collection is pretty great although too much Jeff Koonz for my taste, lol.
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