SFV Seventies

My project of photographing in the San Fernando Valley began as a class assignment in Ben Lifson’s class, “Vocabulary of the Still Photograph,” at CalArts in 1971. The assignment was to photograph in places you know. I had grown up in the San Fernando Valley. I was born in Burbank. We had lived in Reseda and Granada Hills, and moved to Northridge when I was six.

I started by walking around the area close to our house in Northridge, making photographs in my neighborhood. Soon, I was driving to different places in the Valley, parking the car, and walking around looking for things to photograph. As I was driving, I would see things that looked interesting, but being in a car, I would miss them. I then decided to ride my bike so I could easily stop to make a photograph. I would get up mornings, when I didn’t have class, put some food and water in my backpack and head out.

I continued photographing in the San Fernando Valley for several years. My subject matter included documenting building facades, the changing landscape from rural to suburban to urban, and some street photography. I saw some of John Divola’s work photographing in the SFV a few years after I had started. He was also on a bicycle. Maybe we passed each other on our bikes at some point. An interesting coincidence I recently learned, John went to Chatsworth HS, where I also attended. I started there the year after he had graduated. We also had the same photography teacher, Larry Scott.

So far, I have posted some of the photos from this series as Notes. There are many more to be added. For me, these photographs are more than nostalgic memories. They were the beginning of a personal style of work that continues to develop in the photographs I’m making now (although I’m no longer riding a bike).

All photographs by author, 1971-74.