Tom Paiva's Night Photography Blog

One of the hottest stories here in Los Angeles lately has been the moving of a 340 ton granite boulder from a quarry in Riverside to the Mid-Wilshire Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  This boulder will become part of a new exhibit called Levitated Mass.  Here is a diagram of what it will look like when it opens in late summer from a flier they were passing out along the streets.

The Rock has been traveling at night on a 105 mile circuitous route through LA and on one night last week my neighbor Norm and I drove to meet the caravan in Lakewood.  It was fascinating to watch this 200 foot long crane with 176 wheels pulled by a 6-wheel-drive truck and pushed from behind by two more big rig trucks.

There has been a lot of controversy about this art project.  Some say it is a financial folly (the $10 million project was paid for by private donations) others say the money could have been used better elsewhere (hundreds of workers have been employed just to move the rock and install it.)  Whether you like it or not, the best part about it all is that people are talking about art–even before it has been installed.  And to me, that’s a good thing.

Here is a shot that shows the scale of the 21 foot high rock.

Of course I shot many stills, but decided to do some time-lapse clips of the rig negotiating a major intersection.  The exposures are about a second apart.

The Rock arrived at LACMA early last Saturday morning–intact and safe.

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Also last week I went to the Getty Museum to see the Pacific Standard Time show, but really enjoyed the Lyonel Feininger exhibit.  I remember from my art school days that he was a master painter and photographer in the Bauhaus era in Germany, and famously had 22 images in Hitler’s ‘Degenerate Art’ show.  What I did not know was that he passionately ventured into night photography back in the 1920s.  He used a 4.5 x 6cm glass plate camera which was unusual, even in those days and he started in his late 50s to boot.  One of the interesting effects the glass plate causes is the haloing around points of light, like the one below.

  This phenomenon is caused by the double refraction of light on the two surfaces of the glass.

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As you can see here, we was exploring the light spilling from the interior of the building and the shadows from a street lamp from the left.  Feninger was a friend, neighbor and contemporary of László Moholy-Nagy and this is the light coming from his studio next door.

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He also did some great train shots such as this rail yard in Dessau, Germany, 1928.  The contrast of the black locomotives and deep shadows with the snow makes for a dramatically graphic image.  His notes say that it was -20C (-4F) when he made this shot, and you can feel it in this image.

Unfortunately, this show came down earlier this week.  I think many a night shooter should revisit some of these early masters.  I’m glad I bought the catalog.

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For those of you who are active “night photographers”, there is a juried show show called Night Light, associated with Darkroom Gallery in Vermont that is taking submissions until March 21.  Here is the link to the submissions page:  http://www.darkroomgallery.com/ex27

In 2010 I was the juror for their night photography show and contest.  There were some very creative images submitted last time.  Good luck!

First, a happy new year to you all.

Over the past year, I have been working on a major project photographing the state of closed auto dealerships in Los Angeles.  I started this series a year ago, after reading that GM and Chrysler shut down almost 3,000 dealers nationwide in the previous two years, not to mention over 1,000 more that went out of business by attrition due to the poor economy and other circumstances.  The sheer number of closed dealerships is a dramatic indication of the damage of the current recession.

Economic hardship has taken its toll even in car-culture LA.  It is ironic that so many dealerships would be closed, as there are still so many cars being purchased daily.  For a sense of scale, there are about 232 million cars nationwide and over 26 million cars in LA (that’s 1.8 for every man, woman and child).  Over 10% of all the cars in the country are in LA.  We Angelenos drive over 300 million miles daily.  Sobering numbers, to be sure, and it reflects that the car is an important part of life and work in LA.

Cars wear out and need to be replaced.  But American consumers are keeping their cars longer then ever; the average age of a car in the US in now 11 years old (incidentally the same age as my car).  Hence, a contributing factor in closing some of the new car dealerships.

As I delved into this series, I did some research to discover how boarding up all these dealerships affects the economy.  By mid 2011, an estimated 200,000 people were laid off nationwide due to the systematic closure of the dealerships, putting a major workforce of mechanics, sales and administrative staff out on the street in a stressed economy.  This is not just affecting Detroit and other manufacturing locations, but affects us all in our local areas.

Because of the historical and cultural importance of this project, I wanted to shoot it in 8 x 10 with the last of the color film that I had stockpiled (most 8 x 10 color films have been discontinued).  I shot about 175 views at 15 closed dealerships in LA county over the past year.  During this period, I saw many other boarded up locations in my travels, especially in the Inland Empire east of LA and other rural locations around the country, but decided to limit the project to LA.  I wanted to focus on the impact close to home and as it relates to LA’s relationship to cars and car culture.

In keeping with the tone of this blog, here are a small selection of twilight and night images.

Not just dealers from the “Big Three” of Ford, GM and Chrysler have been affected.  Above is a former Honda dealership.  This is a 15-minute exposure started at twilight, and it was totally dark when finished.  The light on the left is from streetlights.  That is a cloud in the upper right that remarkably stayed in the same shape and location for the long exposure.

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The auto industry has had many types of transitions in the past three years, including the death of several marque car brands.  Above is a vacant Mercury dealership in Downey, a city that has experienced a number of closures.  This facility has a couple of “security” lights on and they are actively trying to sell the property.  I was hassled by security at this location (as well as a couple of others), but when they saw the “seriousness” of camera, and that I was not there to loot or damage anything, the guard left me alone to shoot.

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At this closed Chevrolet dealership, the windows and doors were boarded up and locked down tight in this twilight shot.  Oddly, the Spanish signage ‘esperamos’ translates into “hope”, but with the rest of the words out of view, the meaning is “hoping to see you”.  I think not at this point…

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As you can read on the building, this is a former Chrysler/Jeep dealership.  Security was tight at this location on a weekday evening and I was limited to shoot from the sidewalk.  Nevertheless, there were a couple of good shots to be had including this illuminated “Customer Parking” sign.  It is in sharp contrast to the chained fences at each entrance and lonely parking lot.  Balancing the artificial lights of the sign and twilight was part of the waiting game.  I did get back to this location on a Sunday night and had better luck with the weekend security guard.

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There was a bleakness to this forlorn auto pedestal in the empty parking lot.  This dealer began business in the 1950s, and I can imagine some big finned beauty sitting on this perch years ago.

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This former Chrysler dealership near Hollywood is not so “Five Star” any longer.  Note the office chair on the right which is for the security guard.  When he left for his meal break, I had run of the place.  Careful placement of the camera to hide the very bright and blaring security light behind the post was important in getting this melancholy exposure.  l love the trails of the auto traffic on the street at the left.

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The carefully papered windows of this former BMW dealership contribute to this forlorn image.  Determining the exposure was difficult, as it is lit from the intermittent passing cars on Sepulveda Blvd.  Complex camera movements were needed to retain focus throughout, on this 20-minute exposure.  It appeared considerably darker to the eye than in this shot.

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It was the bright light off to the right, illuminating the weeds of the parking lot that piqued my interest to make this view at a former Mercedes dealership.  The bright mercury-vapor security lamp casting the beam of light mixing with a sodium-vapor lamp over my shoulder adds the subtle play on color.

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The Art-Deco influenced design of this former Ford location, built in the 1940s, was intriguing.  Because of these unusual design cues, I returned to shoot at this locale more than any other.  It was a sprawling location with many buildings and interesting architectural details, like this ‘Welcome’ sign.  Note the staggered glass block wall in the background.  This is a 30-minute exposure night shot using only available light.  This facility has been sold and is being razed soon for a new hotel on the location.

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Most of the locations had a series of fences to keep vandals and homeless people out.  This image, actually shot from inside the dealership, conveys the feeling of the locked down facility with the empty lot beyond.  I shot at twilight with minimal focus on the edge of the gate.

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In this 30-minute exposure, a security lamp is raking light across the heavily textured wall.  The long shadows are from the poles on the left.  The clouds were moving in just the right direction that evening, echoing the roof-line.

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A bright security lamp from the bank next door ATM machine is casting the shadow on one of the old light fixtures from this empty dealership parking lot.

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One of the 15 locations I shot was a thriving dealer in Norwalk in the early 2000s when I photographed it for the architect just after it was built.  Now, less than 10 years later, it is closed and vacant.  By the end of 2011, two of the 15 have been demolished, two have re-opened as used car dealerships, and the others are still vacant, awaiting whatever is next.

Many have asked why I focused on this project.  I wanted to portray the story of the impact of the economy on the many people hit so hard by the failures of the auto industry:  the dealerships, many of which were family businesses; the 200,000 laid off workers; and the millions of dollars lost.  The buildings bear witness and are the scars that remain.  At night, they convey the quiet ache of loss.  Shooting the way I do is more than documentation, as I try to capture the feeling of the locations.

Shooting in the 8 x 10 format gives me the discipline be very critical and selective about what I shot and how I shot it.  Large format has a wonderful tonality and captures amazing detail; the images can be enlarged to virtually any size and retain their beauty and depth.   But large format is also very demanding.  Waiting for 15 – 20 minutes for the light to be perfect is common, as are the long 20 – 30 minute exposures at night.  I usually get only 4 – 7 views per visit.    It was a challenge having to overcome many technical issues and to be patient.

While I am working, I think a lot about the dealerships when they were going concerns, of the people who worked at these locations, of theirs and the dealerships role in the communities in which they were a big part, and of the people who came in to get just the right new car for their needs.  All of us are hunkering down now, navigating the changes thrust on us by these challenging times, and trying to find the best way through to better prospects.

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Here is an image of me shot by my fellow 8 x 10-shooting friend and colleague, Tom Johnson, made with my point and shoot digital camera.  He shot with me on a couple of the evenings.  It gives an idea of what the camera set up looks like.

To view more on this series, I did two other postings from this series early last year, one on a Googie style dealer and another dealer.

With business a bit slow this time of year, I decided to re-visit a location I shot at between 1995 and 2004 at the Port of Long Beach.  This facility loads bulk materials such as potash, sodium sulfite and petroleum coke onto ships.  There are rail cars and conveyor belt systems all over the yard, much of it hidden underground.  They even have their own locomotives to move the rail cars.  Most of the process is automated, but there is a small hearty group that operates the frontloaders and other heavy equipment.

I had not been to the site in about 7 years, so was surprised to see some of the facility has been demolished, including the round sulfur barns, that I photographed in the 90s.  There are several images of this location in my 2002 book, Industrial Night.

This group was shot over two evenings, with a view camera on 4×5 film, as usual for my personal work.

This twilight view on an overcast evening shows a shed that the rail cars are wheeled in to drop their load into the hoppers below onto an underground conveyor system.  The white on the ground in the shed is sodium sulfite, a  white granular chemical mined in the desert about 150 miles from LA.

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This colorful image was shot at night with a very wide lens between shift changes.  Within minutes of completing this 5 minute exposure, the locomotive was again pushing the railcars into this shed.  This facility actually rotates the rail car to the inverted position to dump the product.  The camera is about three feet off the ground for this shot as finding just the right position to block most of the lights was a challenge.  I could not hide the one on the left, although it’s partially blocked.  The ‘light’ at the top is actually the crescent moon moving across the night sky.

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This image is lit by a mercury vapor light spilling from the partially open door on the left.  It has a sense of mystery that caught my eye.  It was quite dark and required a 12 minute exposure.

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This shot of the side of one of the containment buildings shows how these facilities are all about function over form.  It might sound strange, but I find these completely man-made locations intriguing.  There is nothing ‘natural’ in this view, with everything being designed and built by humans to get a job done.  While I was setting up, a worker drove the Bobcat tractor into the position in the background totally by chance.  I quickly moved the camera a bit to the right to get it completely in the shot.  I used front swing of the view camera to maintain focus from the Y-valve in the foreground to the background.  It was “only” a 4 minute exposure which would have required a 30+ minute exposure without using the camera movements.

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About a week later, I came back again and made this shot with the last few minutes of the setting sun casting shadows on this “coke barn”.  This image is all about textures and colors.  Within a couple of minutes this view was totally different.

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This view, using the last of the setting sun gives the gray building a warm glow.  The massive 6 foot high tires in the foreground are covered with a dusting of sodium sulfite.  It took almost 30 degrees of front lens tilt to get the tires and the background in focus, as this is shot with a “normal” lens and the tires are only 2-3 feet away.

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The intense blue of this twilight shot of the rail cars of sodium sulfite have an interesting hue, with a green tinge on the rusty cars.  This is my favorite time of day to shoot, and unfortunately, only lasts a few minutes.  It was a clear night as compared to the previous overcast evening.

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These two rail cars are “white”, but are they really?  With the wide mixture of industrial lamps on them, they become a cornucopia of subtle colors.  The blue/cyan sunset seen between the cars is the last of light in the sky.  The sunset appeared orange to the eye, but if I balanced the colors for the sky, the “white” rail cars would appear an unattractive muddy brown.  This color balance compromise is my version of “artist’s license”.

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This is a study in pipes and conveyor tubes.  Those tubes are about 12 foot in diameter and have a fast moving conveyor belt inside.  The light is predominately mercury vapor–a cold blue green, but there are sodium vapor lamps, including one on the shed on the right that is giving the magenta color cast.  There is almost 2 inches of front rise on the camera to maintain the dynamics of the image and the verticals vertical.

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It was great to re-explore this facility and to find new views.  Considering I shot this location over a period of 9 years, stopping 7 years ago, it is remarkable that there are still new images to be made.  Photographing with this sense of dedication and discipline is what I do with most every project I take on.  In this day and age of shortened attention spans, there are still a few of us who still have the persistence to study a location and the patience to shoot it at night at that, waiting for the camera to make the image.