Selective Reasoning

03/25/2013

The Social and Public Art Resource Center or SPARC are a group in Los Angeles that funds, produces, and protects public art mainly murals. I was walking by the office of SPARC when I was hanging out with a friend who lives in Venice. We stopped in and had a very nice chat with archivist Pillar Castillo. I didn't have any pressing commitments at the time and our talk with Pillar got my creative project juices flowing. I announced that I wanted to do a photographic survey of the murals and please give me a map to all of them!

I spent a little time with the murals and produced some 11x17 archival prints for SPARC but alas had to move on before doing anything comprehensive with the subject. The experience did allow me to have an interesting photo assignment and challenge myself a bit.

HOME - We are SPARC: Art | Education | Social Justice | Community

The first mural I attempted to photograph is titled "La Ofrenda" by artist Yreina Cervantes. The mural depicts Delores Huerata one of the founders of UFW or United Farm Workers Union.

The mural is under an overpass so I decided to use HDRI in order to combat the problems presented by the tremendous dynamic range of the scene I wished to photograph. I used NIK software's HDRfx Pro.
I wanted to create an image that looked natural especially the color so therein lies the challenge. I used nine exposures with one stop between each. I am happy for the most part by what I was able to achieve. The prints looked near three dimensional with loads of fine detail.

The murals are often "tagged" by the very folks these works of art are supposed to inform and inspire, the public. An interesting bit of irony. SPARC when they have the funds clean an repair the murals.

The next one is titled "Genocidal Tendencies by artist Ian White. The goal was to show the mural in its immediate environment and then provide a detail or study image.