Wildfire continues with just 10% of the flames contained

More than 10,000 acres in Ventura County have been burnt as a sudden brush fire is expected to gain even more strength today as winds and the morning sun impede the race to contain the blaze.

Fifteen buildings and several motorhomes have been confirmed to be damaged by the fire, which has stretched from Camarillo south of the 101 Freeway to the Pacific Coast Highway. And hundreds of residents have been evacuated ahead of the fire’s spread.

Read more at L.A. Now.

Photos: Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

John Lennon’s artwork returns to Los Angeles

Lennon’s playful drawings will finally be returning to the West Coast this weekend, sitting on display Friday through Sunday at Westfield Century City Mall.

Some background on Lennon’s (non-musical) artistic history:

Early in 1970, he made his gallery debut with “Bag One,” a collection of 15 lithographs — a handwritten poem and 14 drawings, eight of them sexually explicit — that celebrated his love for Ono and were drawn around the time of their nuptials in 1969.

Find out more at Culture Monster.

Photos: John Lennon / Pacific Edge Gallery

futurejournalismproject:

Sony 2013 World Photography Winners

Top: Jens Juul, winner, Professional Portraiture, for Six Degress of Copenhagen.

Left: Andrea Gjestvang, Grand Prize winner, for One Day in History, portraits of survivors of the 2011 massacre in Utoeya, Norway.

Right: Valerio Bispuri, winner, Contemporary Issues, for Prisons of South America.

Select any to embiggen.

Winners across all categories along with photo galleries of their can be viewed at the World Photography Organization’s web site.

Definitely worth the embiggen.

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Paris photo fair arrives in Hollywood

The world’s most prestigious photography fair will be launching its U.S. branch in Los Angeles starting today - with Paramount Pictures Studios serving as the backdrop for the fair’s extensive offerings.

The fair concludes Sunday: For more details, head over to Framework.

Photos: The Paris Photo Fair

A captivating journey to the Philippines

Los Angeles Times photographer Luis Sinco, along with friends Hersley Ven Casero and Eli Reed, took a trip to his hometown in the Philippines, and as is their nature as photographers, they documented the trip. The photos above are just a sampling of the work the trio produced while overseas.

Check out all of the stunning travel photos over at Framework.

Photos: Eli Reed, Hersley Ven Casero, Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times

kcrw:

Los Angeles, a Giraffe of a City by Art Talk’s Edward Goldman 

In the horse race between cities, Goldman says, L.A. stands apart - a giraffe being compared to horses.

“So, if you try to compare Los Angeles to any other famous city — a comparison in which LA will always lose — you are totally missing the point. I see this beautiful, exotic and slightly weird metropolis of ours as a “giraffe” of a city.”

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2013 Pulitzer Prize Photos

It’s been a incredibly busy week in news, so in case you missed the announcement a few days ago, the above photos are this year’s Pulitzer Prize winners for photography.

From top to bottom, the photos, and the photographers behind them, are:

• Javier Manzano’s winning shot for best feature photography, taken Oct. 18, 2012. It shows rebel Syrian soldiers guarding a sniper’s nest, with light streaming through holes made by gunfire and shrapnel.
• Manu Brabo’s photo for best breaking news photography, showing Syrian refugees crossing into Turkey Dec. 8, 2012 - and this photo is just one of 20 from Associated Press photographers that comprised the prize-winning set.
• Beside Brabo’s photo is a shot by Narciso Contreras, showing a Syrian rebel fighter gesturing after firing upon troops fighting for President Bashar Assad Nov. 4, 2012.
• Another entry in AP’s Syria set is a photo by Rodrigo Abd, showing a woman, named Aida, recovering from injuries after her home was shelled by government troops March 10, 2012.

Head over to Framework for more details on the winners, and other finalists.

staceythinx:

Xchange by Nick Gentry 

About his work:

Much of his artistic output has been generated with the use of contributed artefacts and materials. He states that through this process “contributor, artist and viewer come closer together”. His art is influenced by the development of consumerism, technology, identity and cyberculture in society, with a distinctive focus on obsolete media.

So much for thinking that floppy disks are useless.

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Remembering the revolutionary Paolo Soleri

Paolo Soleri, an Italian architect whose most widely-known project was the ecologically-focused city of Arcosanti, passed away yesterday at the age of 93.

Arcosanti, built far out in the Arizona desert, was a counter-culture icon, and intended to meld architecture and ecology in a sustainable city for 5,000 individuals. The city, still under construction, will now serve as a living testament to Soleri’s vision.

Read our full obituary from architecture critic Christopher Hawthrone here, or check out an article on Arcosanti from way back in 1987.

Photos: Tom Tingle / Arizona Republic, Megan Kimble, Robin Rauzi / Los Angeles Times

Colorful Rock Formations in China

Some of the best eye candy you’ll see today.

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The man behind the Polaroid Kidd

Photographer Mike Brodie documented a lengthy series of travels across the country starting in 2004, taking on the moniker of the “Polaroid Kidd.” Though his work has been met with acclaim, and is currently on display at the M+B Gallery in Los Angeles, he’s since stepped away from the world of photography.

So what inspired Brodie to explore the country in such a rough way? From photographer Barbara Davidson’s interview with him:

“The punk scene, like radical anarchists and all these feminist girls, at the time, their ideas and way of life were really interesting and inspiring to me and really gave me the push to think for myself and, well, hit the road. I saw 46 states via freight train; the journey was 10 years, the book was culled from four years’ worth of photographs.”

Look at more of his photos over at Framework.

Photos: Mike Brodie / M+B Gallery

nprfreshair:

As a native Los Angelino, I consider one of the city’s gems to be the Watts Towers.  Completed in 1954 by Italian immigrant Simon Rodia, a construction worker without any art training, he would come home after work and slowly but surely (it took him 33 years) build “17 interconnecting sculptures adorned with intricate mosaics.” He used steel rods and pipes for the main supports and embedded pieces of porcelain, tile, bottles, and sea shells. 

According to the LA Times, when the city of Los Angeles finally found Rodia’s masterpiece, the head of the municipal Building and Safety Department wrote this in a memo: “Personally, I think this is the biggest pile of junk outside a junkyard that I have ever seen.”

Quite the contrary, no? The Watts Towers have come to signify something very special to the city and since 1990, were designated as a Los Angeles landmark.

Over the years, tiny cracks and weather conditions have deteriorated the towers.  In 2011, the Los Angeles’ Department of Cultural Affairs contracted with LACMA to help with maintenance and restoration.

Read here for more on how the restoration of The Watts Towers is coming along.

- Heidi

We’re squarely in the “not a pile of junk” camp.

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jtotheizzoe:

Covering the Space Program

NASA doesn’t need much help selling the idea that space is super-awesome, but these covers for manuals and press conference notes from the golden age of spaceflight sure don’t hurt. They are going up for auction later this month. I wouldn’t mind having one or two of those hanging in my house, eh?

Check out many more awesome works of vintage NASA PR art here.

Meanwhile, in awesome space-related news.

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March’s best reader-submitted photos

Times readers regularly send us photos, providing a peek into the daily, artful lives throughout California. The shots above are a sample of the photos picked as the best from the previous month.

So take a look at March’s best shots via Framework, or submit photos of your own here.

Photos: Amparo Rios, Toby Hancock, Dana Barshun, Stan Paul, Mark Rosales, Michael Ares

sfmoma:

via The Atlantic:

[Pictures of earth taken from space] are magical. They are mysterious. They are weird. They suggest, if they don’t fully embody, why we go to the trouble of exploring in the first place… And they often resemble art of a more earthly variety.

Play the game: NASA or MOMA? 

16/20 - not bad! A perfect quiz for a Friday afternoon.

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