MOCA

There were a number  museums that had free admission last weekend and the Los Angeles, including the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA). Since I hadn't been to the MOCA in years this seemed like the perfect opportunity for a visit. As museums go, the MOCA is kind of small so it doesn't take long to see all of the exhibits. I really love black and white photography so I was thrilled to walk into a room full of intriguing B & W's. They were the photos by Robert Frank from his book "The Americans." There happened to be a special presentation by a highly esteemed photography professor on the exhibit while I was there so I learned quite a bit.

Robert Frank was a Swiss man who moved to the US in the early 50's. He spent the greater part of 1955 and 1956 traveling across the US and taking pictures of the people he encountered on they way. He picked 80 of his tens of thousands of photos to put in his book and they are fabulous in the way they catch the raw reality of the time. Evidently the book was highly controversial because his photographic style challenged the traditional style that was the standard of the day, and also because the images depicted a somewhat "depressed" American people, and this was not how America believed it should be depicted. I absolutely loved his photos and his candid style and I was completely inspired. The museum allows flash-free photos but unfortunately the ones I took of his images didn't turn out  so you'll have to go to the MOCA to see them for yourself (or do a google image search...).