An Introduction to Photo Friends

Formed in 1990, Photo Friends is a nonprofit organization that supports the Los Angeles Public Library's Photograph Collection and History & Genealogy Department. Our goal is too improve access to the collections and promote them
through programs, projects, and exhibits.

We are an enthusiastic group of photographers, writers, historians, business people, politicians, academics, and many others, all bonded by our passion for photography, history, and Los Angeles.

Introduction to the Los Angeles Public Library Photo Collection

The Library's Photo Collection focuses on the history of Los Angeles and dates from the 1880s to the present. Included are images from the historic Security Pacific National Bank collection and the photo morgues of the Los Angeles Herald Examiner and Valley Times newspapers. Over 70,000 photos are available on the Library’s website, along with instructions for ordering, and a list of reproduction and usage fees

Search the LAPL Photo Collection.

Programs at the Los Angeles Public Library - Central Library

This series of presentations on Los Angeles photographers began in 1994 with a lecture on the career of Los Angeles photographer Will Connell. Michael Dawson of Dawson's Book Shop gave the slide presentation. At present, Photo Friends has hosted more than 80 Los Angeles photographers.

For many years, Photo Friends hosted a bimonthly lunchtime lecture series at the Central Library which showcased Los Angeles and its photographers. Among the distinguished speakers who appeared at the “The Photographer’s Eye” were Doug McCulloh, Gary Leonard, Delmar Watson, Julius Shulman, and Iris Schneider.

Help support current and future projects, exhibits, and programs today by becoming a member!

Projects with the Los Angeles Public Library

Shades of L.A. & Shades of California

In 1991, Photo Friends sponsored the Library's “Shades of L.A.: A Search for Visual Ethnic History.” The six-year project involved copying 10,000 photographs from family albums throughout Los Angeles, thereby broadening the Collection’s representation of ethnicities in the city. Exhibits were displayed in The Los Angeles Public Library's Central Library and several branch libraries throughout the city, and a companion book, entitled Shades of L.A.: Pictures from Ethnic Family Albums, was published by The New Press.

The "Shades of L. A." archive at the Los Angeles Public Library represents a wide range of Los Angeles families--including African Americans, Asian Americans, Mexican Americans and other Latinos, urban American Indians, Jews, Armenians, families of Middle Eastern descent (including Arabs, Israelis, Turks, and Iranians), families of European descent, people of mixed race and ethnicity, and people who do not identify with any ethnic group.

In 1997, "Shades of California" was created. It was modeled on the Los Angeles Public Library's "Shades of L. A." Sponsored by the California State Library and with assistance from the L.A.P.L. Photo Friends, "Shades of California" held photo days at public libraries throughout the state where people were invited to share their family albums. The host libraries archived the images copied from the albums and sent an additional set to the California State Library. This project model is still being used today by libraries throughout the nation!

The "Shades" projects have also been featured on L. A.'s public television station, KCET. In 2003, Huell Howser, who originally suggested that "Shades of L. A." be expanded throughout the state, produced an hour-long "Shades of California" program, based on a photo day in the L. A. neighborhood of Cypress Park.

For additional information about the "Shades of L. A." or "Shades of California" projects, or to view more images:

View over 7,000 images from the Shades of L. A. project on the Library's Web site: www.lapl.org.

Shades of L. A.: Pictures From Ethnic Family Albums
Carolyn Kozo Cole and Kathy Kobayashi
New York: The New Press: Distributed by W. W. Norton, c1996

Shades of California: The Hidden Beauty of Ordinary Life: California's Family Album
Edited by Kimi Kodani Hill; introduction by Robert Daseler; afterword by Carolyn Kozo Cole and Kathy Kobayashi
Berkeley, CA: Heyday Books, c2001
(preview this book in Google Book Search)

L.A. Neighborhoods Project

Beginning in 1996, Photo Friends supported the L.A. Neignborhoods project by commissioning photographers to create a visual record of the neighborhoods of Los Angeles during the early part of the 21st century. Initial funding of the project was provided by a grant from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation through the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. Documentary photographs collected from this project are now part of the Library’s Photograph Collection.

Below is a list of the photographers who participated in the project and the neighborhoods they documented:

Industrial L.A. Project

The Library’s Photograph Collection contains thousands of photographs documenting the history of industry in Los Angeles.

To ensure the Library’s Collection will continue to reflect such an important part of Los Angeles’s history, a generous grant enabled Photo Friends to hire five contemporary photographers out to document present-day industrial L.A. These images have become part of LAPL's permanent collection and are available through the Library's Photo Database.

Exhibits at the Los Angeles Public Library - Central Library

Play Ball!

Play Ball! traced significant Dodgers stories, including the team's arrival in 1957, Wally Moon and baseball at the L.A. Coliseum, Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, Walter O'Malley and the battle over Chavez Ravine, Roy Campanella, Vin Scully, Jaime Jarrin, Maury Wills, James Roark's Pulitzer Prize-nominated photograph of Rick Monday's rescue of the American Flag, Tommy John surgery, Andy Messersmith and the advent of free agency, Garvey-Lopes-Russell-Cey, Dusty Baker and the first "high five," Fernando Mania, Al Campanis, Orel Hershiser, Kirk Gibson, and more.

Team historian and author Mark Langill gave a noontime "Photographer's Eye" talk about the Dodgers on Wednesday, August 13, 2008.

Related links:
Images from the Exhibition (http://www.lapl.org/newsroom/releases/Dodgers.pdf)
Exhibition Press Release (http://www.lapl.org/newsroom/dodgers/index.html)

Play by Play: A Century of L.A. Sports Photography , 1889-1989
Curated by David Davis

Spanning a century of sports highlights, "Play by Play" revealed L.A.'s long-forgotten sports heroes and unforgettable moments. Focusing on L.A.'s rich and diverse sports history from 1889 to 1989, this comprehensive exhibit of photographs from the Los Angeles Public Library's collection traced the earliest days of professional baseball and boxing through the "Showtime" Lakers and Fernando-mania. All of the images used were selected by David Davis (now a Photo Friends Board member) from the photography archives of the Los Angeles Public Library. The exhibit was displayed at the Library from October 16, 2004, through March 27, 2005. (book info)

Local News: Tabloid Pictures from the Los Angeles Herald Express, 1936-1961
Book by Marvin Heiferman (Author), Diane Keaton (Author), Carole Kismaric (Editor)
Exhibition curated by Diane Keaton

Michael Rogers of Library Journal said this about the book:
The L.A. Herald Express was a tabloid rag started by Citizen Hearst in 1931, which miraculously managed to line the bottoms of bird cages for 30 years until merging with the L.A. Examiner. The paper thrived on grab-you-by-the-throat headlines, sensationalistic stories, and photos of everything from tear-jerker shots of lost dogs, to gruesome crime scenes of headless and handless corpses, to fires, cross-dressers, and school kids practicing air-raid drills in hopes that hiding under their desks would protect them from being turned into raisins in the event of a nuclear exchange with the Commies. These 92 duotones from the Library's collection selected by editor Keaton (yes, it's that Diane Keaton) hearken back to the days of whiskey-breathed news hacks and cigar-champing shutterbugs leering out from behind weathered Speed Graphics with no. 2 press bulbs and lightsaber flashes. Mostly kitschy now, they nonetheless have value in showing how editors enhanced the emotional kick of a still photo by retouching the prints with drawn-in tears, etc. Press photography is gaining acceptance as an art form, so this volume should be of interest. Good fun at a good price. Recommended. (Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

An Introduction to the Los Angeles Public Library

The Los Angeles Public Library, a department of the City of Los Angeles, serves the largest population of any library in the country through its Central Library, seventy-one branch libraries, over six million books and other items, state-of-the-art technology, and its Web site (www.lapl.org). These resources and its more than 18,000 public programs provide everyone with free and easy access to information and the opportunity for life-long learning.