La-La Land: The Playful Side of Los Angeles in The 1970s and ’80s
Parade staging area, Los Angeles, 1980
American photographer Gary Krueger believes he lived through a ‘golden age’ in 1970s and 80s Los Angeles. A new exhibition pulls together his playful street photography.
Krueger’s curiosity and instincts helped to create a remarkable body of street photography that he describes as ‘split-second juxtapositions in life.’
After graduating high school in 1963, Krueger drove out west to study graphic design and photography at LA’s Chouinard Art Institute from 1964 to 1967. On graduation from Chouinard, Krueger was hired by Walt Disney as a graphic designer. While continuing his association with the Disney Corporation, he pursued photography full-time and had a successful commercial and editorial career as a freelance photographer for the company.
“I shoot only in a horizontal format with a 35mm lens – much like the way we see things in real life. Everything is shot at eye level and they’re all horizontal. I just said to myself, that’s what I’m going to do. None of the photos have been cropped, manipulated, composited or altered. The people pictured in the photos were not contrived, posed or directed.”
h/t: guardian
Rose Parade, Waverly Drive, 1980
Park in Los Angeles, 1975
Air show, 1978
Flying majorette, 1977
Shopping centre, 1978
Los Angeles Zoo, 1972
Cheerleader competition, 1980
Shopping centre, 1980
Woman behind pole, 1979
Mannequin in car, 1975
Swap meet (flea market), 1972
Easter parade, 1977
Girl at a dog show, 1979
Dream girl at a parade staging area, 1978
LA Christmas parade, 1976
Halloween party, 1980
Halloween party, 1977
Hollywood Christmas parade staging area, 1976
Graumann’s Chinese theatre, 1978
Somewhere in LA, 1974
