Dennis Hopper Photography Exhibit at the MOCA - Geffen Contemporary

"I arrived July 4th, 1967 in Los Angeles......I drove in Laurel Canyon and I could smell the dope in the air" - this is usually the beginning to one of my father's favorite stories that he forgets he's told me maybe 100 times. Maybe the reason he doesn't remember it's going to be 101 the next time he starts with that sentence has something to do with the "dope" that was so thick in the air those days.

I took a little 20 minute drive (because, of course - everything in LA is 20 minutes away) to the MOCA at the Geffen Contemporary yesterday to check out the Dennis Hopper exhibit, "Double Standard" curated by Julian Schnabel. It was the second to last weekend and I had wanted to go for a little over a month, so on this lazy yet sunny picturesque Sunday afternoon - from my off of Laurel Canyon home - I figured it was my last chance.

Though his photographs aren't particularly astounding, I always connected with them because they told a specific story to me. They spoke to me. I couldn't really figure out what it was about his somewhat candid, relaxed and effortlessly cool photographs that looked so familiar to me, but they did. Then one day, I walked by one somewhere (don't even remember where), and as I saw a photograph of a side street - off of what I suspected was Gower and Fountain circa 1968 - it hit me. They were the exact grainy, black-and-white images that served as the condensation that formed the imaginary nebula of my father's storytelling. There, about 20 inches in front of me - eye level, were the cars "no German cars.....everything was Ford, Chevrolet...big" (in a thick Argentine accent) and "The mountains you can see from the street ..... behind the palm trees" that served as the backdrop of his story telling of his first years here in Los Angeles. I felt like I had been there. On that street. On that day.

Above - I've chosen some of my favorites from the exhibit. I think some of these would be super cool blown up huge (like 5 feet x 8 feet) - they're available HERE. One of my favorites was the picture shown above with the blonde girl side profile driving in the convertible. At the exhibit, there were actually four different shots of her. They looked like they were shot a few seconds apart all from the same perspective. There was so much more of a story to tell within those photographs - so much to imagine. At the exhibit they had them displayed in a series (two on top, two on bottom in the shape of a square) and I LOVED them.