photo la 2017
When: Jan. 12-15, 2017
Where: The Reef/LA Mart in Downtown Los Angeles
Since January 2002 TheScreamOnline has featured photo la—the longest-running art fair in Los Angeles. For 26 years it has engaged the global arts community, bringing together more than 10,000 attendees each year from ardent enthusiasts to serious collectors. What started in 1991 as a casual meet-up for artists, galleries, and collectors has transformed into an unparalleled global showcase of photographic art, ranging from 19th-century masterpieces to contemporary, cutting-edge photography-based work.
The fair kicked off with an Opening Gala on Jan. 12th honoring Weston Naef, curator emeritus of the Getty Museum’s Department of Photographs who founded the Getty’s world-renowned collection and penned many books on the history and art of photography. This year’s exposition aligned with Month of Photography Los Angeles (MOPLA), which moved from April to January to reflect the fair’s importance in making Los Angeles an international photography destination.
photo la 2017 teamed up with the Lucie Foundation to present 11 days of featured photographic programming, called Converge. For the first four days of this initiative, photo l.a. 2017 offered dozens of programs, lectures and seminars including an activation with skateboarding legend Arto Sarri and panel discussions on subjects such as Snapchat as a form of photographic art and the synergies between fashion and photography.
Among the other many highlights of this year’s photo la were two curated installations by Monroe Gallery of Photography. The first showcased LIFE magazine photographer Grey Villet’s intimate images of interracial couple Richard and Mildred Loving, whose marriage in segregated Virginia in the 1960s is chronicled in Jeff Nichols’ newly-released feature film, Loving.
The other, Tony Vaccaro: War, Peace, Beauty, exhibited work of the Pulitzer-Prize-winning war photographer, exploring combat photography and its impact on public perception of war on the home front. Vaccaro’s fascinating life story was also the subject of a recent and well-received documentary.
Other features included:
Vintage prints of celebrities by South African-born photographer and filmmaker Norman Seeff, whose work focuses on the exploration of human creativity and the inner dynamics of the creative process.
The award-winning work of artist Penelope Umbrico, whose contemporary installation combined photographic prints with repurposed and recycled elements to present a new twist on technology with an abstracted Modernist aesthetic.
