Friday, December 28, 2007 – School Days

The Charnock Road Elementary School in the Palms area of Los Angeles (Charnock Avenue at Sepulveda) was built in 1947. The murals were added in April 2007, sixty years later. There's some interesting visual tension going on here between the flat, utilitarian architecture and the idyllic and innocent kids stuff.  It reflects the tension you might have felt long ago in elementary school, the attempt to regiment and socialize carefree and hopeful kids. There was that wonderful world outside the school window, achingly unavailable as you sat there, being good.

And someone has a cruel sense of irony.

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