The Sunken City

Last month a friend and I took a hop over a wall and a crawl under a fence to reach San Pedro's "sunken city". The story is that in 1929 a huge landslide caused the neighborhood atop the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean to collapse, over time leaving foundations, streetcar tracks, pipes, trees, and pavement as remains of what once existed. The sunken city has become a popular location for street artists, with many huge rocks and slabs of concrete perfect for graffiti. Here are some photographs I took that day, I look forward to visiting again in the future.

Oh, and as it is 9:30PM here on the west coast, I hope that everyone has a very happy new year. May 2015 be the best year yet!

All photographs © Monika Seitz Vega, 2014.

A very fisheye Disneyland

Our Lomography fisheye camera (the #1, which they no longer make in the color + model we have) is special not only for it's 170 degree range but also because it was the first toy camera in our camera collection. Though it may not be heavy in the rotation, it's still fun to take out and shoot with, as it was on this October day we spent at the Happiest Place on Earth.

Here they are, in chronological order throughout the day. Enjoy °o°

All photographs © Monika Seitz Vega, 2014.

Paramount Studios

In September my husband surprised me with a tour of the Paramount studio in Hollywood. Paramount Pictures turned 100 years old this year, and the tour encompassed aspects from every decade of that century. I am still blown away by the fact that I stood where Billy Wilder stood, where the horse head scene from "The Godfather" was filmed, where Cecil B. DeMille parted the sea in "The Ten Commandments"...


These first photographs were taken in 2008. How wonderful to have been able to go on the tour and check something off "the list" that we've wanted to do for so long!

The following photographs were taken the day of the tour. In no way do these even begin to scratch the surface of the experience we had, as the sound stages and back lots where filming was taking place was off limits to photography. 

The Hollywood sign is fittingly visible from the studio.

"Citizen Kane" (1941) was shot here. 

Joan Crawford's dressing room entrance.

The iconic water tower and "Ten Commandments" sized backdrop.

The Bronson gate. One of the last stops on the tour, and perhaps the one I was most looking forward to.

The Bronson gate is quintessential Paramount, for us it was exciting because of it's place in one of our favorite films, 1950s "Sunset Blvd.". Here is a still from the film, things are a little different 60+ years later but to stand there and look up at the gates is transcendent.

Billy Wilder's "Sunset Blvd." (1950)

For more information about Paramount tours click here.

All photographs © Monika Seitz Vega, 2008-2014.

leaving LAX

Taking off from Los Angeles. From a series of photographs taken in the early 1980s.

making it happen

If you're familiar with this photoblog you are familiar with my love of film photography as well as collecting and preserving old photographs and slides. I'm excited to share my experience and skill with those who may need their own histories digitally archived. 

I started a Go Fund Me page to help get my business started off on the right foot. If you can, please contribute, or please share. Thanks.

Purple Negatives Photography - Go Fund Me

my hometown.

All photographs © Monika Seitz Vega, May 2014.