The 10th Anniversary Edition of the Month of Photography Los Angeles was very special to us.
Through 32 Official and Featured exhibitions and projections, we exhibited and screened the work of 294 photographers of which 147 were female-identified. A major goal of this year’s festival was to showcase women and women-identified photographers in addition to sharing the work of ethnically diverse photographers, covering a wide range of subject matter including the everyday and mundane to uplifting stories that serve as a testament to the human spirit. This included a beautiful exhibition on refugees rebuilding their lives (Stronger Shines the Light Inside by Angie Smith) and an incredible story about the Compton Junior Posse, an equestrian activity center in South Central Los Angeles (Daring to Claim the Sky by Melodie McDaniel).
We had our first-ever programming residency and collaboration with the LINE Hotel, a creative and cultural partner whose aesthetic aligns with our own. We hosted our portfolio reviews, discussions, lectures and workshops with various partners including Magnum, and EyeEm. In the parking lot, we hosted Lost Rolls America, a history archive launched by Ron Haviv that asks Americans to dig through their junk drawers and basements to find forgotten, undeveloped rolls of film that can become a part of a digital national database. We presented a conversation about inclusivity with the Authority Collective, identifying actionable paths to an inclusive industry that uplifts and supports marginalized artists in lens-based media, in addition to other conversations and workshops that could help photographers navigate through this complicated and competitive business.
We took over four exhibition spaces at ROW DTLA, downtown Los Angeles’ emerging hub for art, culture and experiences for a week-long pop-up that showcased the MOPLA Group Show, Michelle Groskopf’s Sentimental and Feature Shoot’s The Print Swap.
We hosted two auctions that raised over $25,000 dollars to go towards the research and cure of Multiple Sclerosis and towards environmental justice.
Last, but not least, we launched a smart-phone app that made festival-going easy with information at your fingertips, built by ImagEconomy. The app’s home screen presented a rotating image daily to represent the variety of work from this year’s festival, curated by Linda Dzhema.We are certainly proud of this year’s festival outcomes and already looking forward to next year.
See photographs from most of the events and openings below, captured beautifully by Christel Robleto.
