Thursday, July 26, 2012

fragments from a monograph on the pole photographer bolesław okoniewski : los angeles part one

(malibu - part one)

some recently discovered photographs captured in los angeles by the polish photographer bolesław okoniewski, a trip taken sometime before his death (dates uncertain, most likely late 60s / early 70s).

okoniewski used the aleatoric technique of not looking through the viewfinder of the camera, with little or no attention to focus or exposure issues.

okoniewski's trip was motivated by the desire to be in the city that had been the home to artists such as john cage, marcel duchamp, kenneth anger, the many émigrés like thomas mann, bertolt brecht, oskar fischinger, kurt weill, billy wilder.... where hollywood cinema had had many great periods, and left many traces, and where most of the ed ruscha's photographic books had been produced (every building on the sunset strip, thirtyfour parking lots in los angeles, twentysix gasoline stations, some los angeles apartments, and royal road test (for its method).

(note : please view images in a black or near black room, no artificial light especially)

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