Muted Stares. Volume 1: photographs from the public staircases of Silver Lake and Echo Park in Los Angeles
Douglas Hill
Self-Published
English
Softcover
32 pages
216 x 280 mm
2022
ISBN Not Available
‘In the 1920s a network of concrete staircases was built into the myriad hillsides of the Los Angeles district of Silver Lake and Echo Park during their development as residential neighborhoods. All but a couple of the staircases are still accessible to the public around the clock as they were originally intended. I’ve lived amidst these staircases for over 40 years, and yet have only had a marginal awareness of the extent of their existence for most of that time. When the pandemic descended upon all of us in 2020, like many, my daily routines shifted dramatically. When it was clear I’d go stir-crazy without getting more exercise. I resolved to walk more. A lot more. There are some 70 or so staircases within a two mile radius of my house ranging from a few steps to hundreds in some cases. The one with which I’m the most familiar is seven houses from my front door and is 111 steps punctuated by four landings.’ – Douglas Hill
About the Artist
Douglas Hill was born to Canadian parents in London, England in 1950. At the age of five he moved to New York where he lived until coming to Los Angeles in 1968 where he still resides. He attained U.S. citizenship in 1990. Hill began making photographs in 1969. From 1971 to 1973 he attended UCLA where he studied with Robert Heinecken, Darryl Curran, Jerry McMillan and Leland Rice. In 1973 he went to Cal Arts where Ben Lifson was teaching.
Hill’s work has been shown in solo and group exhibitions at such places as: G. Ray Hawkins Gallery, Santa Monica; The International Center for Photography, New York; Kunsthaus, Zurich; Friends of Photography, Carmel; Kunstgewerbemuseum, Zurich; Prairie State College, Chicago; The Photography Place, Philadelphia, Craig Krull Gallery, Santa Monica; The Huntington, San Marino and publications: American Photo; Camera; “24 Hours in the Life of Los Angeles;” “The New Color.” He is included in the collections of the Huntington, the Library of Congress, Joseph E Seagram & Son, Center for Creative Photography, Center for Motion Picture Studies, Amon Carter Museum and participated in a project commemorating the bicentennial of Los Angeles, funded by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Hill’s commercial architectural photography has been widely published in House Beautiful, Coastal Living, Architecture, Architectural Record, Domus, World Architecture, Interior Design, Interiors. His work has also appeared in numerous books on architecture and interior design. He has been teaching photography at UCLA Extension since 1994. He lives with Elayne Sawaya, his wife of 40 years and their poodle, Godfrey, in the Silver Lake district of Los Angeles.
douglashillphotography.com
(source: https://www.douglashillphotography.com/about)
