Picture taking in paradise

Abstract

From the photographer's point of view, the City of Los Angeles is as interesting as any in the United States. (Henry Workman Keller, c. 1885)1

When Henry Workman Keller trained his camera's lens on the dusty, tree-lined streets and spanking new residences of 1885 Los Angeles, the city was cresting the wave of a real-estate boom that would change it irrevocably. The teenaged son of a well-to-do pioneer family, Keller had taken to photography with enthusiasm. His zeal for the craft moved him to pen a handsome little treatise called ‘The Amateur in Los Angeles’ (figure 1). In it, Keller praised his hometown as an ideal environment for the photographer, a place where diverse scenery and a ‘mixed population’ provided a vast array of photo opportunities.² Young Mr Keller's prescription for the most interesting views included many of those places especially vulnerable to change: ‘the old adobes, the pepper and palm avenues, and the Chinese quarters’.³ The album's illustrations demonstrate that Keller heeded his own advice.

‘The Amateur in Los Angeles’, unpublished manuscript by Henry Workman Keller. Henry Workman Keller Collection, Box 4 (3), The Henry E. Huntington Library.

‘The Amateur in Los Angeles’, unpublished manuscript by Henry Workman Keller. Henry Workman Keller Collection, Box 4 (3), The Henry E. Huntington Library.

Notes

‘The Amateur in Los Angeles’, unpublished manuscript by Henry Workman Keller. Henry Workman Keller Collection, Box 4 (3), The Henry E. Huntington Library.