The Lay of the Land Through the Lens

A new exhibit at Santa Monica College proves that no two photographers see alike.

Timothy Hearsum, whose views of nature make up half the show, seeks to capture the environment exactly as we see it. David Stock, who aims his lens and ironic sense at junkyards, smoke stacks and the like, tries to convey what man has done to the environment.

“The name of the exhibit is ‘Landscape Counterpoints,’ ” said Robert Godwin, director of the school’s Photography Gallery. “I wanted to show how two people look at the landscape differently. (Hearsum and Stock) have a lot of similarities, but differences too.”

Easily seen in the photographs, the contrasts can be heard in each artist’s own words.

Said Hearsum, whose color photographs include a moody Mono Lake and spectacular rock and cave formations of the Southwest: “I’m trying to accurately record a landscape as close as possible to how we, as human beings, see it.”

With peripheral vision, he explained, “we can see 140 degrees and are generally attracted by an object or location on the horizon line. So I work with a panoramic camera and my images are three times as wide as they are high.”

Said Stock, “a political activist and a socialist” who shoots in black-and-white: “I look at the photograph with an eye for what it shows about the culture and how it reflects what’s going on in society.”

For instance, a series on house plants shows how the decorative flora “end up looking like prisoners of war, left to die without water, or tied up with stakes,” he said.

Stock said his attitude isn’t a bitter one, however. “I think it’s important to maintain a sense of irony or humor.”

Hearsum, who is based in Santa Barbara, has had several one-man and group shows here and abroad. Stock, who lives in San Pedro, recently exhibited works in South Bay exhibitions. Their photographs will be on view through Sept. 23.

ANOTHER ONE DOWN: Greater Los Angeles has lost another mural. Jane Golden’s depiction of Gabrielino Indians, on a wall perched over Pacific Coast Highway, was recently painted over by the City of Santa Monica. Henry Korn, director of the city’s Arts Commission, said that 80% of the mural, painted in the late ‘70s on the remains of an old hotel, had become obscured by graffiti and that the work was endangered by water seepage.

“It was apparent that it would be an inappropriate expenditure of public money to repair a ruin” covered with graffiti, Korn said.

THE ENVELOPE, PLEASE . . . Four Southern California museums have won grants for their conservation efforts from the Washington-based Institute of Museum Services. A total of 219 institutions nationwide received $2.9 million in the Conservation Project Support grants. The local recipients are:

The California Museum of Photography, Riverside ($25,000); the Museum of Photographic Arts, San Diego ($3,640); the Riverside Municipal Museum ($9,020); and the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens ($22,650).

The Huntington has also received $237,300 from the Ralph M. Parsons Foundation for its Arabella Huntington Memorial Art Collection. The funds will be used to renovate the gallery housing the collection, in the west wing of the Huntington’s library building, and to conserve its artworks.