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Michael Light

L.A. Day / L.A. Night

April 30 – June 30, 2022

Hollywood Hills From Griffith Park, Beachwood Drive and Hollywood Reservoir at Left, CA, 2004, 40 x 50 inches

Hollywood Hills From Griffith Park, Beachwood Drive and Hollywood Reservoir at Left, CA, 2004

40 x 50 inches

Monochrome Negative

Edition of 10 

Signed on verso

Los Angeles July [Moon], 2007, 40 x 50 inches

Los Angeles July [Moon], 2007

40 x 50 inches

Monochrome Negative

Edition of 5

Signed on verso

Getty Looking North, 2007, 40 x 50 inches

Getty Looking North, 2007

40 x 50 inches

Monochrome Negative

Edition of 5

Signed on verso

Golden State Freeway Looking Southeast Over San Fernando Pass, CA, 2004, 40 x 50 inches

Golden State Freeway Looking Southeast Over San Fernando Pass, CA, 2004

40 x 50 inches

Monochrome Negative

Edition of 10

Signed on verso

00 Untitled/Cover, 2005, 24 x 30 inches

00 Untitled/Cover, 2005

24 x 30 inches

Monochrome negative

Edition of 10 

Signed on verso

Sunset Boulevard, 2007, 24 x 30 inches

Sunset Boulevard, 2007

24 x 30 inches

Archival pigment print

Edition of 5

Signed on verso

L.A. River Looking Northwest, I-5 and Los Feliz at Left, CA, 2004, 40 x 50 inches

L.A. River Looking Northwest, I-5 and Los Feliz at Left, CA, 2004

40 x 50 inches

Monochrome Negative

Edition of 10

Signed on verso

Downtown Los Angeles Looking Southwest, Harbor Freeway (110) at Right, CA, 2004, 40 x 50 inches 

Downtown Los Angeles Looking Southwest, Harbor Freeway (110) at Right, CA, 2004

40 x 50 inches 

Monochrome Negative

Edition of 10 

Signed on verso 

Looking Northwest, Somewhere Near Torrance, CA, 2004, 24 x 30 inches

Looking Northwest, Somewhere Near Torrance, CA, 2004

24 x 30 inches

Monochrome Negative

Edition of 10 

Signed on verso

Highways 5, 10, 60 and 101 Looking West, L. A. River and Downtown Beyond, CA, 2004, 59 x 74 inches

Highways 5, 10, 60 and 101 Looking West, L. A. River and Downtown Beyond, CA, 2004

59 x 74 inches

Monochrome Negative

Edition of 2

Signed on verso 

Untitled/Hollywood, 2005, 59 x 74 inches

Untitled/Hollywood, 2005

59 x 74 inches

Monochrome Negative

Edition of 2

Signed on verso

Untitled/Downtown Dusk, 2005, 40 x 50 inches

Untitled/Downtown Dusk, 2005

40 x 50 inches

Monochrome negative

Edition of 5

Signed on verso

I-5, 60 and Soto Street, Looking Northeast at Dusk, CA, 2004, 24 x 30 inches

I-5, 60 and Soto Street, Looking Northeast at Dusk, CA, 2004

24 x 30 inches

Monochrome Negative

Edition of 10 

Signed on verso

1-5, 60 and Soto Street, Looking Northeast at Dusk, 2004, 40 x 50 inches

1-5, 60 and Soto Street, Looking Northeast at Dusk, 2004

40 x 50 inches

Monochrome Negative

Edition of 5

Signed on verso 

Press Release

Michael Light

L.A. DAY / L.A. NIGHT

Santa Monica, California

April 30 – June 24, 2022

Danziger Gallery Los Angeles is pleased to announce our ongoing representation of photographer Michael Light with the show L.A. DAY / L.A. NIGHT opening April 30th.

Michael Light (b.1963) is considered one of the pre-eminent aerial photographers of his generation, and for the last 20 years has focused largely on humankind’s encroachment of the natural world and its subsequent impact.

Photographed in 2004 and 2005, each image within L.A. DAY/ L.A. NIGHT offers its own individual view of the city of Los Angeles from a perspective of several hundred to several thousand feet above its tallest buildings.

Conceived as complementary parts of a whole, L.A. DAY showcases the sprawling metropolis with beauty and concern, capturing its staggering scale while foreshadowing its continual growth into the foreseeable future. Concrete highways curl and twist over one another, sophisticated architectural marvels of engineering glisten in the golden light while man-made rivers cut through hillsides, transporting water through the once-arid desert. Familiar local sites may be active and busy but viewed from a distance Light’s images lend a calming sense of space to an area teeming with 4 million inhabitants living in close proximity.

In contrast, L.A. NIGHT with its pinpoints of light, creates a moody meditation reminiscent of star maps. Whether the city is at rest or not, it is hard not to imagine each individual light as a single person, as though the soul of the city is a nocturnal being comprised of its vulnerable sleeping citizens. Los Angeles at night seems to be in suspended animation waiting for the next sunrise.

Seen together as they were intended, L.A. DAY and L.A. NIGHT create a balance of opposites that complement each other and reveal the topography of Los Angeles as though Light was photographing the surface of the moon from inside a space capsule. (This should come as no surprise given Light’s photographic expertise and his seminal publication of NASA’s Apollo photography in the book “Full Moon”.)

Michael Light is a San Francisco-based photographer interested in environmental issues through both geological and sociological contexts. Throughout his career, Light has focused on important subjects with an aesthetic call to action for future generations.

Light is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship for photography, and his work is in the collections of major museums including The GETTY RESEARCH INSTITUTE, SFMOMA, LACMA and the VICTORIA & ALBERT Museum.

The book L.A. DAY / L.A. NIGHT is available through Radius Books.