Los Angeles Photography Congress
Lectures by Valerie J. Bower and Janna Ireland
Thursday, June 14
8pm
Free
Part lecture series, part social club, the Los Angeles Photography Congress explores a wide range of practices, from commercial to fine art, from the amateur to the academic to the historical and beyond — as well as the blurry boundaries in between. It provides an opportunity for both established and emerging photographers to discuss their work, their process, and their experiences, to forge new relationships, and to experiment with new ideas. Its primary focus is upon photographers and photographs that regard the city of Los Angeles as a subject, a backdrop, or a base of operations.
For this installment, Janna Ireland will talk about her ongoing series There Is Only One Paul R. Williams, an intimate look at the incredibly prolific black architect’s work and Valerie J. Bower will talk about her work documenting Los Angeles subcultures, from the lowrider scene in Watts, to East L.A. punks, to the Harbor area neighborhood of Wilmington where she grew up.
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This event is part of the pre-launch series of events organized by the Spatial Awareness Network, a new organization dedicated to supporting interdisciplinary creative work focused on space and place in Greater Los Angeles.
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Valerie J. Bower is a photographer based in Los Angeles. She uses childhood nostalgia and the visuals and experiences of growing up in a working-class L.A. neighborhood as influences in her work. Her dream-like, monochrome street photography show a softer, feminine point of view on typically masculine themes and subjects. She documents various street cultures and everyday life in the city.
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Janna Ireland was born in Philadelphia. She holds an MFA in the from UCLA Department of Art and a BFA from the Department of Photography and Imaging at NYU. Ireland is the 2013 recipient of the Snider Prize, presented by the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Columbia College Chicago. Her work has been shown in solo exhibitions in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, and in group exhibitions across the United States and internationally. She lives in Greater Los Angeles.
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