Pinhole Photography Workshops & Art Exhibition
Using the eccentric homemade camera collection of the Los Angeles hobbyist photographer George Lane Benson (1935-2012), workshop participants will explore Hermon Park and make a series of unique silver gelatin prints.
George Lane Benson, affectionately known as “Uncle George” to his great-niece once removed, Anahid Yahjian, was a self-taught photographer, tinkerer and adventurer who was born in East LA in 1935 and lived in Norwalk until his death in 2012. He picked up pinhole photography during his retirement, documenting his changing city on his bicycle.
In his twilight years, he taught Yahjian, then a college film student, his new craft. She inherited many of his prints and negatives and all of his equipment, including his wonderful handmade pinhole cameras and light charts. Hoping to give the cameras and gear a new purpose, Yahjian pulled them from storage and passed them down to filmmaker and arts educator Daphna Lapidot, who brought them to Art in the Park for our educational programming.
Schedule of Workshops and Events
Pinhole Camera Workshop for High School/Young Adult — March 15, 2–5pm
This workshop with Photograper David Weldzius is limited to 10 participants.
Please register to attended.
Pinhole Camera Workshop for Families — March 22, 2–5pm
This workshop with Shelby Roberts & Daphna Lapidot is open to kids and parents and caretakers. Workshop is limited to 10 participants.
Please register to attended.
Pinhole Camera Workshop for All Ages — March 29, 2–5pm
This workshop with Shebly Roberts & Daphna Lapidot is limited to 10 participants.
Please register to attended.
Community Art Exhibition & Celebration — April 5, 2–5pm
Photos made in the workshops will be shown, along with all the unique pinhole cameras. All are welcome to this open exhibit!
Art in the Park will also be creating a pinhole camera workbook for Uncle George’s cameras and images, with our workshop participants’ work included.
Bios
George Lane Benson, Sr (affectionately known as “Uncle George”) was a self-taught photographer, tinkerer and adventurer who was born in East LA in 1935 and lived in Norwalk until his death in 2012. He picked up pinhole photography during his retirement, documenting his changing city on his bicycle.
Anahid Yahjian is an LA-based writer and filmmaker with a passion for activism, change-making and cultural programming rooted in local communities. Her Uncle George called her “Annie” and was one of her biggest cheerleaders throughout her childhood and young adulthood.
Daphna Lapidot is a Los Angeles based visual artist and experimental filmmaker whose work delves into themes such as motherhood, childhood and domesticity. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, she received her MA in Film Studies from Northwestern University in 1991 and an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 1996. She is also a Fulbright Scholar. As a member of the Visual Arts Faculty at Marlborough School, she shares her expertise with young artists. Currently, she is working on a new film project exploring the elusive nature of memory.
Shelby Roberts is a photographer who lives and works in Los Angeles. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts, NYC in 1987 and his MFA from California Institute of the Arts in 1990. His photographs investigate fragments of environments that humans have built: ancient neo-lithic sites in Scotland, a vista of abandoned grain elevators from the industrial age in Buffalo, New York, or the border fence between the United States and Mexico. Shelby has exhibited his work in museums and institutions such as the Torrance Museum of Art, Torrence, CA, the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art, Indianapolis, IN, Armory Center for the Arts, Pasadena, CA, Irvine Fine Arts Center, Irvine, CA. His work has been exhibited in commercial galleries such as Sam Lee Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles, CA and published in “Nest” magazine. Roberts has taught photography at University of California, Irvine since 1997.
David Weldzius is an artist based in Los Angeles, Recent shows include “Public Works” at Art in the Park, and “Iteration and Reproduction,” a group exhibition at Fulcrum Press, Los Angeles. David is currently working on a book of photography that explores the use of common spaces and resources in the City of Los Angeles, and he is producing a documentary video that considers the legacy of Dorothea Lange’s portrait of Florence Owens Thompson (aka the “Migrant Mother”).