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