The Camera as Equalizer : Photography: ‘Life in a Day of Black L.A.’ shows that there are more similarities among races than differences.

An 11-year-old boy, clad in a wet suit, with a look of heavy concentration on his face, waits in the ocean for a wave to ride.

A businesswoman, her suit already on, combs and clips back her daughter’s hair to ready her for the school day.

A sixth-grade teacher stands over a student with a look of frustration, reprimanding him for misbehavior.

And a “two-career couple” stands proudly in their two-car garage, displaying the fruits of their labor--”his-and-her Benzes.”

Everyday images, right?

Yes, say the editors and photographers of “Life in a Day of Black L.A.: The Way We See It,” a new book of images and short essays billed as “the first photographic look at contemporary Black culture in the West.”

A companion exhibition of 100 of the 150 images in the book goes on view Sunday in the three-story UCLA Extension Design Center at Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade, a precursor to a nationwide tour that is to begin in April when the exhibition opens at the California Afro-American Museum in Exposition Park to mark the one-year anniversary of the L.A. riots.

“This (project) points out that there are more similarities (between races) than differences,” said co-editor Toyomi Igus, managing editor of publications for the UCLA Center for Afro-American Studies, which published the book. “I don’t think these pictures are anything that other people haven’t done--they’re just not used to seeing black people doing them. . . . That’s why I’m so glad it’s at the Promenade, because it allows people that do not come into the black community to say, ‘Hey, this is not so far away from me--it’s part of my community too--the L.A. community.’ People who were so shocked in April because they didn’t see (the riots) coming and might be afraid . . . can take the book home and look at it alone where they know they’re safe.”

The project was conceived by co-editor Roland Charles, director of the Black Photographers of California and Los Angeles’ Black Gallery, long before the L.A. riots (“We were in the book’s final selection process when the ‘epilogue’ happened ,” says Charles). The book was quickly amended to include a lengthy final section of photographs from the uprising and its aftermath.

Included are images of a multiethnic group of teen-agers taking part in the rioting; a black police officer and National Guardsman protecting an Asian businessman’s store; a black highway patrol officer tending to a wounded white man; healing efforts at First A.M.E. Church; and owners of the burned Antiquarian Bookstore amid the rubble.

“The uprising, of course, added a new element and we had to deal with that,” said Igus. “We wanted to show that it wasn’t all fires burning and everything out of control, but that there was a lot of hope and healing going on too.”

The original idea for “Life in a Day of Black L.A.” came about in 1988 after Charles curated a similarly themed exhibition at the Museum of African American Art, and sought to expand on that show with a commissioned catalogue to help “fill the void in the projection of black culture.”

“What we really wanted to do was to show a normal lifestyle,” Charles said. “The media primarily focuses on the negative aspects--crime and violence--without any understanding of the community, of people that are hard-working and honest, and our image was suffering as a result of that. I think black culture has been misrepresented, and we are out to tell the truth.”

That truth is told through the book’s images--which include sections on education, religion, the arts, sports and recreation, unemployment and homelessness, nightlife and celebrations including Martin Luther King Day and the annual African Marketplace and Cultural Faire. But more hard-hitting is the unapologetic text that goes along with the photographs, from the introduction calling on Hollywood for its frontline role in promoting stereotypical images of blacks as gang members, violent criminals and welfare recipients, to sections touching on historical prejudice, continuing discrimination in the workplace, and the need for families to teach their kids “how to survive in a society that is, at best, merely tolerant of and, at worst, hostile to our very existence.”

“It’s just a matter of perspective--that’s why instead of showing drug dealers and crack babies, we chose to show a recovering drug addict,” Igus said.

Thus “Life in a Day of Black L.A.” points out the flip side of negative statistics, noting for instance, that “for every child who drops out of school six remain” and that “for every tale of crime and violence, there are 10 of faith and perseverance.” Throughout, the selected images illustrate those positive sides and those pursuing positive ends.

“There are success stories--of every day people and unsung heroes,” said Igus. “Not every teen-ager is a gangbanger. The stereotypes have changed over the years, but they’re still negative. So (the book and exhibition) are there to address a problem, and if people are going to address it, then who better than those that are experiencing it?”

Featured are attorneys, teachers, actors, student, postal workers, artists, shop owners, journalists, factory owners, priests and police officers. The images are by 10 local African-American photographers, including Charles, recent National Endowment for the Arts fellowship recipient Willie Middlebrook, motion picture and television photographers Nathaniel Bellamy and Don Cropper, and photojournalists Rod Lyons and Akili-Casundria Ramsess.

Other photographers--who spent about a year producing the thousands of images from which the final project was compiled--are Karen Kennedy, Jeffrey, Calvin Hicks and Mike Jones.

Charles selected them, he said, for their “photojournalistic capability” and their “unique sense of caring about representing the community.” And because “for all of them, it’s something that they always wanted to do.”

“Obviously, the whole story can’t be done in one book. However, this is a beginning, to increase the awareness,” said Charles, adding that he hopes the project will lay groundwork for black photographers to take a new step forward toward equal footing with photographers of all races. “Although we’re setting the record straight here, I would prefer that the next book not be about that, because when you have to work under those conditions, they are very limiting. . . . We are putting labels on things, but it’s simply my hope to use that to get to a larger vision. Many of these photographers have other social statements they have to make.”