By Janni Chowdhuri
At their weekly meeting, the church bridge club members took turns admiring a snapshot of a golden sunset over Catalina Island. The proud owner of the photograph doted that her granddaughter captured the picture-perfect moment on a recent inquest of colleges in the Los Angeles area. Mark Lacy's grandmother commented, "Our grandson's hobby is photography too."
It was true that Mark Lacy's new passion was to make photographs. And he had recently returned from Los Angeles, but he saw things differently. He had photographed Mount Cajon, a landmark on the historic Santa Fe Trail, with a cumbersome twin lens reflex camera. He inscribed plainly at the bottom of the 16" by 20" fine art print, "Mount Cajon", though it appeared nowhere in the frame. The natural monument was completely obscured by the pollution of Los Angeles reaching 60 miles inland through the San Bernardino Valley. The image was exhibited as part of a series of impressions of the modern American West.
Though approval and adoring comments would come easily with a Walmart photo-processing envelop full of timeless, beautiful sunsets and fields of flowers, Lacy was obsessed with the man-made creations that spoiled the view. He used the camera to explore the urgency of subtle issues rarely given consideration in the world of glossy commercial magazines.
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CONTRASTING VIEWS LIFE DURING WARTIME PROPENSITY FOR VIOLENCE RIOTERS AND THRILL-SEEKERS THE VAPOR JETS RETHINKING ADAMS TRAVELS WITH SHIVAS AND ANGELS SEEING THE LIGHT A 9-1-1 WAKE-UP CALL |
if images appear dark.
Thought-provoking images are not made on a day at the beach; Lacy's pictures have been made in the middle of a riot, while free-falling from 10,000 feet and on a desperate search for water deep in a desert canyon of the Sierra Madre. Lacy conceded, "Sometimes you have to forego safety to be in the right place at the right time to make something meaningful."
Mark Lacy's decisive moments have convinced people to consider new ideas.
IN THE PHOTO ABOVE Lacy makes photographs from a provocative and sometimes controversial viewpoint, and he photographs people with different points of view. An activist from the National Organization for Women laughs as she is confronted by a protester delivering a sarcastic message that progressive women are giving ladies a bad name.
ADDITIONAL CONTENTS At the conclusion of the article is an interview with Mark Lacy on photography and culture, as well as further exploration of his photographic subjects.
