When I first visited LA in my adult life, I hated it. I could not understand why anyone would ever live there. I was there for a week in March of 2000, and it was a pure whiteout week, meaning that everything in the distance was obliterated by water vapor off the coast and fine particulates that are suspended in the air so that visibility is reduced to within a very few miles.
This meant that the basin, the Hollywood Hills, the ocean, was obscured or obliterated from view. What you could see faded away to nothing in the near distance. I thought it was pollution, and I suppose that to some degree it was (is), but it is more about the marine layer, a fog that rolls in off the ocean in the evening and causes the phenomenon. When I interviewed to work our there in 2003, it was January, the clearest time of year. So I knew it was not always white.
I did not try to capture the nothingness of LA whiteout that often, but in the drawing belowI captured a whiteout day from the Getty.
What this whiteout, along with LA weather in general, does is obscure and change the landscape everyday, throughout the day. I was fortunate to watch it change from a high perch... my office window. It had a great view right over Bel Air, across the Hollywood Hills towards the San Gabriels and Mt. Wilson, with the entire LA basin out to my right.
The two views below are just the view straight out to Bel Air.
You can actually see the outline of the San Gabriels in this one.
Other views of LA from the west.
A particularly clear view from the south promontory towards Century City.
The view from the South Terrace, May 27, 2010. It was a rainy day.
I also tend to compact these scenes a bit, but I like this one.
This meant that the basin, the Hollywood Hills, the ocean, was obscured or obliterated from view. What you could see faded away to nothing in the near distance. I thought it was pollution, and I suppose that to some degree it was (is), but it is more about the marine layer, a fog that rolls in off the ocean in the evening and causes the phenomenon. When I interviewed to work our there in 2003, it was January, the clearest time of year. So I knew it was not always white.
I did not try to capture the nothingness of LA whiteout that often, but in the drawing belowI captured a whiteout day from the Getty.
What this whiteout, along with LA weather in general, does is obscure and change the landscape everyday, throughout the day. I was fortunate to watch it change from a high perch... my office window. It had a great view right over Bel Air, across the Hollywood Hills towards the San Gabriels and Mt. Wilson, with the entire LA basin out to my right.
The two views below are just the view straight out to Bel Air.
You can actually see the outline of the San Gabriels in this one.
Other views of LA from the west.
A particularly clear view from the south promontory towards Century City.
The view from the South Terrace, May 27, 2010. It was a rainy day.
I also tend to compact these scenes a bit, but I like this one.
No comments:
Post a Comment