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Arts & Entertainment

'Los Angeles Alleys' Shows a Different Side of the City

CD2 Communications Director Jeremy Oberstein curated a blog-turned-book about the beauty behind grimy and desolate alleys in Los Angeles.

Street photography has no known rules; the candid nature of the art form would never allow any. Yet most images snapped on the street take place on bustling sidewalks, intersections near towering skyscrapers, or in fashion districts. Jeremy Oberstein, Communications Director for Councilman Paul Krekorian, had a different subject in mind. In 2008, he started the blog Los Angeles Alleys. The first entry was a photo of an unassuming alley in Mid-City, steps away from the Grove and Farmers Market. Oberstein then combed through galleries on Flickr to find other “grainy and dark” portraits of alleys in his native city, asking artists for permission to use their shots on his Web site, and soon emails came in from photographers in Chicago and Michigan.

“I’m not a great photographer. There are people here much more talented than I am,” he said on a recent weekday afternoon at Groundwork Coffee on West 2nd Street.

The upstairs loft of the coffee shop turned into a physical gallery of selected works of the blog on May 1, and will stay on display through the end of the month. He walked around the space, navigating around customers, to give Patch a narrated tour of the exhibit. Only one of the pieces was his own: an intentionally blurred photo of an alley in Los Feliz, in which he kept his shutter open for 40 seconds to achieve the effect of having “tunnel vision,” he said.

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"I wanted to focus on something that traditionally most people don't focus on," he said. 

The Web site includes 23 neighborhoods in Los Angeles (with a few posts mixed in that feature other locations, like Brazil and Cuba) and varying times of day. One piece, by Angeleno Ross Reyes, shows an alley off Cahuenga Boulevard in Hollywood that is used as an entrance to the music venue Hotel Café. The photo was unplanned; Reyes frequents the club and he happened upon the shot one night.

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“I just go where I go and let the photos find me rather than seeking them out. It’s the Zen of photography I suppose,” Reyes said in an email. “L.A. alleys can transform from dump sites to restaurant patios and everything in between in a blink of the eye.”

While downtown and the eastside are main focal locations of the blog, Oberstein felt it necessary, as a descendant from the San Fernando Valley, to include one photograph from his old neighborhood in the exhibit. He moved to D.C. for two years after graduating from UCLA, an experience that made him appreciate Los Angeles more, he said. 

“I have a real passion for Los Angeles,” he said. “It is a city with endless possibilities.”

Oberstein has received numerous inquiries about starting a similar project in other metropolitan cities, but he has no plans to expand his Web site. If someone wanted to start an alley project in another city, he wouldn’t mind and is open to collaborating, he said.

“It kicked off a lot of interest I didn’t know was there,” he said.

The blog was recently turned into an art book, which ties in with the opening reception for the exhibit on Thursday night. Each photographer chose their own frame, printed their own placard, and had a say in the price tag. Oberstein took on the role as curator, but he doesn't want to take full credit for the project. 

“It’s not about me or a Web site. It’s about people expanding their thinking about Los Angeles," he said. “Even if it’s for 30 seconds.”

After describing the history of a few photos in the gallery -- some shot by professional photographers and professors, some shot by novice artists -- Oberstein walked outside to an alley around the corner that also serves as an entrance to a prohibition-themed bar, the Edison. He studied it for a few moments before walking across the street to City Hall.

An opening reception for the exhibit and book release will be held on Thursday, May 12 at 6:30 p.m. at Groundwork Coffee on 108 West 2nd Street.  

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