Untitled/San Fernando Valley; from Los Angeles 07.27.05 by Michael Light

Good day, collectors! It's Sara—I am so pleased to introduce you to the first of two editions from photographer Michael Light: Untitled/San Fernando Valley; from Los Angeles 07.27.05.

This project began last July when friend, fellow photography lover and HHS! panelist Darius Himes, co-founder of Radius Books, sent over a fat file of .jpgs from projects he was working on. Radius has made gorgeous books with a few artists we have created editions with—including Colleen Plumb, whose solo show is up at the JBG through April 24th, and Michael Lundgren. One of the two editions we released with Lundgren benefits Radius, which, as a non-profit, "works to encourage, promote, and publish books of artistic and cultural value for a wide audience." As their mission naturally aligns with ours, it's always a pleasure to work together (plus, they're just good people).

Among the images Darius sent were several from Michael Light's LA DAY/LA NIGHT. The photos, as they loaded and opened on my monitor, were and are—at the risk of sounding inane—utterly breathtaking (really, literally, physically, that is the word for them—breathtaking). We knew we had to bring them to you! Untitled/San Fernando Valley; from Los Angeles 07.27.05 and its sister print, which we'll share tomorrow, present a marriage of two things—flying and the West—that have spawned mythologies ranging from the personal, to the distinctly American, to the universal. The work is smart and extraordinarily beautiful.

A pilot himself with a lifelong love of flight, Light hired a helicopter pilot to lift and roam with him above Los Angeles so he could hover over a rare sort of 4x5 camera—a Linhof Aero Technika—which uses roll film, allowing Light to shoot continuously without constantly reloading single sheets. Over the course of the project, he shot 900-some photos of the lights, the buildings, the streets, the trees and river below. On the ground—in the darkroom and on the computer—Light combined traditional film processing techniques with post-production work. Turning his negatives into digital files, Light smoothed out the film grain, moderating its interference with the haze and particles of light that you see glowing around the horizon.

From there, the images are printed, editioned (as here), and some, sequenced into the book. Untitled/San Fernando Valley; from Los Angeles 07.27.05 graces the cover of the LA NIGHT half of Light's publication—an object to behold. When open, it lies nearly flat, presenting 16"x20" images full bleed, so that the city of Los Angeles, by day and by night, from above, unfolds in your lap. The pages are brilliantly bound in a "Z"—as you turn it over, you swiftly and seamlessly (as if in fight) change directions—and suddenly face an alternate horizon.

As much as I love books, and this one in particular, I have a habit of buying them as if, that along with the actual bound object, I am also acquiring the time to read them—which, unfortunately, is just not true. This is where the importance of prints, or for that matter, anything that you hang on your walls and adorn your home with, comes into play. Prints, in a way, are the opposite of books, in that you do not need the time to sit down with them. They are like The Giving Tree (not the book but the actual tree)—you can take and take and take from them, without actually having to give much in return. While I think it's true that the more time you spend really looking at and thinking about art, the more you will receive from it, the things you see in your periphery daily shape the way you think about and perceive the word around you, whether or not you realize or take the time to acknowledge it.

There's lots for this project of Light's to give, but I'll save that for tomorrow.

* The 24"x30" prints in this edition are signed on verso by the artist.