L.A.tinos: A Walk on the East Side.
March 22, 2004
“L.A.tinos: A Walk on the East Side” takes us into the bustling streets of Los Angeles to meet the people who animate them and to allow us to share in a moment of their lives. The pictures; reminiscent of the work of early photographers Walker Evans, Atget and Martin Chambi; shifts away from the immediacy of news photography. The images, charged with symbolism and love, are also critical and sometimes coldly analytical, but not without a sense of humor. This first solo show by photojournalist Hector Mata is a fresh, surprising and uncompromising portrait of a community in which the visual artist himself is reflected.
Hector Mata grew up in Peru during the military regimes of the sixties and seventies, and turned to photojournalism after realizing that his fine arts work would not be able to make an immediate impact on the society in which he lived – a country battling to emerge from years of economic struggle and its brutal Shinning Path guerrilla war. After a short stint as a commercial photographer, Mata won a job as a chief photographer in his native Peru for Agence France Presse and was transferred to Moscow after three years of covering South America. In Russia, he was responsible for the photo operation in the former Soviet Union and also took part in news coverage in the Middle East and Africa. He has lived in Los Angeles since 1997.
Where: Perfect Exposure Gallery
3513 W. 6th Street, Los Angeles, CA 90020
When: – Thursday, May 6th, 2004, 6-9 pm
– Exhibit Ends – Friday, June 11, 2004
