Photographer Is Taking a Shot at Recognition

Photographers generally have very little name recognition, something David Holzman is determined to change for himself.

The Huntington Beach photographer has just published eight color posters and hopes to become a household name with his works, including images of sunset at the Balboa, Newport and Huntington Beach piers.

His posters were printed by Ultracolor in El Segundo for $65,000 and financed by one of his patrons.

“I wanted to get my art seen by as many people as possible in an art medium,” Holzman said. He doesn’t want it “used as a background for something else like advertisements or commercial work. I felt my work was strong enough to stand by itself as an art statement.”

The posters retail for $25 and are sold as far away as Japan, France, Norway, West Germany and Malaysia. About 100 stores in the United States carry the posters.

Galleries selling Holzman’s posters in Orange County include Art Images in Huntington Beach, Z Galleries in Santa Ana, Art Dimension Gallery in Newport Beach and Preferred Graphics in Costa Mesa.

Holzman decided it was important to release the series all at one time.

“Anytime you want to introduce posters and get taken seriously by the poster and art business . . . you release eight and they take notice,” he said. “They want to be able to choose between them. I tried to make a series of shots but at the same time have each photograph reach a different kind of audience.”

Born in Los Angeles in 1960 and raised in suburban Sherman Oaks, Holzman got his first exposure to photography at 15 by sneaking his camera into rock concerts. He borrowed his mother’s camera, got a five-minute photography workshop from the local camera store salesman and shot one roll of film at a Peter Gabriel concert.

He continued for a few years by shooting concerts for record companies. But he just wasn’t making any money in rock ‘n’ roll photography.

After graduating from high school, Holzman moved to Mammoth, where he almost literally fell into his career. He broke his leg on his 18th birthday while training to be a professional skier. He returned to the Southland and started to study photography at Valley College in Van Nuys.

In 1983 he and a friend opened a 500-square-foot studio at the corner of Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue, not one of the ritziest spots in town. “One night we went to lock up and there was a guy injecting heroin in the bathroom,” Holzman said. “By the time we called the police he had overdosed.”

He eventually moved up to a 5,000-square-foot studio in downtown Los Angeles. He called it Studio 301.

“I was working seven days a week, 15 hours a day, just to cover the overhead of the studio, my car and my apartment,” he said.

It was time for a new direction. So, he exited left, and headed south.

Holzman says it was the smartest thing he ever did because that’s how he learned the difference between art and commercial work.

He found a room for rent in Newport Beach and spent his time shooting photographs, surfing, riding his bicycle and skateboarding. He spent six months working on one pier shot. He says every time he thought there would be a sunset he liked he would ride his bike to Newport Pier to photograph it.

After two years he started getting free-lance jobs and was having fun doing them.

Holzman says being a photographer is a lot like being an actor.

“You both walk around with a portfolio, you have to meet people you’ve never met and impress them with your personality and your book,” Holzman said. “What people don’t realize is that so much of a photographer’s success is the business end. It’s so expensive to have cameras, film and put yourself in the places you want to photograph. If I just wanted to do my artwork I could never make it.

“Right now the artwork just pays for itself. It doesn’t put any money in my pocket.”

Holzman was motivated by the work of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston. “When I saw their work I was inspired by the greatness of it. It stood alone, better than all the other photographs I had seen. I learned from their composition and the way they went about creating.”

The Photography Column, which runs Saturdays in Orange County Life, is intended to help the serious amateur and weekend shooter. Questions and ideas are encouraged. Write to: Robert Lachman, Photography Department, The Times, 1375 Sunflower Ave., Costa Mesa, Calif. 92626.