La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles Possibly 1973 - 1994

This black and white photograph of the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles was taken by Richard Gordon. It captures an image of a scene in flux, a moment in time, of people on the street, of buildings in the background, and of course the famous mammoths. There's a real sense of the grit and grain of the city here, a kind of raw honesty. The light, its a little harsh, which adds to the feeling that this is a place of contrasts. The surface of the image feels almost like a document, and the different elements in the photograph are arranged in such a way that each holds its own space and the people are real, and their clothing and hairstyles tell a story of a time. It reminds me of the work of Garry Winogrand or Lee Friedlander, these artists that aren’t afraid to find something beautiful in the everyday. It is this ambiguity that makes it interesting, it is not about simple answers, but about open-ended questions, which is what all great art does.