Wednesday, May 7, 2008 – An Instant Ruin

California Bank Branch, 1929, John and Donald B. Parkinson – 5620 Hollywood Boulevard – a brutal concrete Art Deco tower, echoing New York City, but somehow a bit Mayan.  It's pretty much in ruins now – just after it was built the Great Depression began. It appeared in the 1997 film L.A. Confidential – Warner Brothers slapped on a temporary marquee and pretended it was a theater.  It has that desperate and sad look of things gone bad.

If you wish to use any of these photos for commercial purposes I assume you'll discuss that with me. And should you choose to download any of these images and use them invoking the "fair use" provisions of the Copyright Act of 1976, please provide credit, and, on the web, a link back this site.

Technical Note:

Photographs after March 3, 2008, were taken with a Nikon D200 – or a Nikon D70 when noted. All previous photographs were taken with the D70. The lenses used are (1) AF-S Nikkor 18-70 mm 1:35-4.5G ED, or (2) AF Nikkor 70-300 mm telephoto, or (3) AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 55-200 mm f/4-5.6G ED. Photography here is modified for web posting using Adobe Photoshop 7.0.  The earliest photography in the archives was done with a Sony Mavica digital still camera (MVC-FD-88) with built-in digital zoom.

All text and photos, unless otherwise noted, Copyright © 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010 - Alan M. Pavlik