Tuesday, January 22, 2008 – Beach Culture

The Surfer Statue at the Hermosa Beach Pier – the Tim Kelly Lifeguard Memorial, 1965, William Maloney, recast by Chris Barela (see Public Art in LA)

Mural: Sunny Southern California

Dawn and Neal Von Flue, dedicated September 30, 2007, Pier Plaza, Hermosa Beach

From Thursday, September 27, 2007, the Beach Reporter explains all –

The wall painting is 40 feet by 8 feet and is filled with overlapping pictures. The mural starts off displaying images that portray Hermosa Beach in the early 1900s and then quickly spans into the pre-surfing era. The middle shows the surfing and jazz influence on the city and the rest of the mural becomes more recognizable with images such as Pier Plaza palm trees and a lifeguard tower.

But much is puzzling to anyone who's not an old-timer at this beach.

Jazz fans will understand – the place where West Coast Jazz started – as in the "the birth off the cool" and all that. Miles Davis, Chet Baker and Gerry Mulligan played here. Those times are long gone.

"Some good things happened while I was in California. I sat in with some of the musicians at the Lighthouse on a few occasions and they made a record out of that." ~ Miles Davis

A toy woody in a shop window –

A warning –

If you wish to use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me. And should you choose to download any of these images and use them invoking the "fair use" provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, please provide credit, and, on the web, a link back this site.

Technical Note:

Most of these photographs were shot with a Nikon D70 - using lens (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300mm telephoto, or after 5 June 2006, (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor, 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. They were modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  Earlier photography was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik