It kicked off on Friday afternoon with a visit to a terrific and moving photography show at LA Artcore Brewery Annex (650A S. Avenue 21, L.A. 90031). The show is titled: Quiet Heroes/Over 80 and the photographer is Barry Shaffer. Barry has been a dentist for over thirty years (he's my dentist!) and has transitioned his longtime photography hobby into something spectacular with this show.
With Quiet Heroes/Over Eighty, Barry set out to meet some of Los Angeles' oldest residents and document their lives. His subjects are almost all from other countries and many from backgrounds of war and conflict. The photos, all black and white, were taken in the subjects' homes using natural light. Barry sought to achieve intimacy seldom found in photographic portraiture. The exhibit is a celebration of humanity, wisdom, and our country's history of immigration and assimilation, exemplified by Los Angeles.
The photographs and the subjects' stories are remarkable. Below, Barry and I are in front of two of his photographs.
See the show if you can. It's terrific and moving. Days later, I'm still reflecting on the subjects' images and words. The show continues until May 2. Go to Barry's site to learn more about the project:
http://overeighty.barryshafferphotography.com/
Friday night was the always fun pre-party for the L.A. Times Festival of Books at the Mystery Bookstore. I spent Saturday at the festival on the UCLA campus (my alma mater). I took a bunch of photos. Here's one with the awesome women of mystery I shared my signing time with at the Mystery Bookstore's booth.
L to R: Cara Black, Alafair Burke, Karin Slaughter, me, and Kelli Stanley.
.jpg)
You can see all my festival photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=166588&id=565919000&l=9364736dc9
If you sold a million books, then people obviously must've read your previous blog post!
ReplyDeleteTerry Bradshaw, ahem, I mean Barry Shaffer, looks to be one special photographer.
Looks like you had an energizing weekend, Dianne!
Btw, fyi there will be a local blogger get together on May 8th
It was a great weekend, Cafe! Please send me details about the local blogger get together.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteJust ck out Ann's Pasadena PIO blog & mine for more info Dianne.
ReplyDeletepasadenapio.blogspot.com.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had a great weekend. I stopped by the booth, but obviously not when you were there. It would have been fun to see you!