Faces of the Free : Photographer Rescues 150,000 Images From Quake-Damaged Store

After a six-month standoff, Joel Greenberg freed the hostages on Monday. All 150,000 of them. Risking possible contact with asbestos, not to mention possible arrest, Greenberg pulled a rental truck up to his photography studio at Laurel Plaza mall in North Hollywood and retrieved the thousands of portraits, photos and negative images of loved ones held captive inside his shop since the Northridge earthquake.

“It’s like opening up a tomb,” the owner of Real Faces Photography said as he pulled out old family and baby pictures sent to him for restoration before the quake. “These are family heirlooms. A lot of people’s lives are disrupted when they can’t have their pictures.”

Unable to get into the 26-year-old shopping center since a few days after the temblor, Greenberg and other merchants said that mall managers had threatened to call for the arrest of anyone who tried to get back in without signing a liability waiver. Such a waiver would limit merchants’ ability to file future lawsuits.

Only three merchants have been allowed to reopen in the shopping center since the quake, and the others may never be able to move back because the mall’s management company, Forest City Enterprises Inc., is considering razing the old mall to make way for a new one.

But Greenberg wasn’t arrested Monday, benefiting some of his clients, who had been waiting since the temblor to see the immortalized faces of their families.

Perhaps no one had waited as patiently as Los Angeles resident Monina Ingco, whose portrait of herself, her sister and her mother was to have been a belated 1993 family Christmas gift.

“This is great news,” Ingco, 30, said. “We’ve been waiting for such a long time. It’s like you are the one who is trapped inside the shop.”

Elegant Valentine’s Day portraits of ladies in evening wear, high school senior shots and wedding photos were among the other buried memories sealed in Greenberg’s studio. Even the cash register contained $30 left over from the day before the temblor.

The emptying of Greenberg’s shop raised questions about other merchants’ ability to retrieve their belongings.

As late as last week, mall managers had cited asbestos hazards as a key reason for their policy preventing merchants from entering their stores. Greenberg has questioned that claim, saying that a copy of mall management’s own asbestos report shows only minimal risks at a handful of the mall’s 33 stores.

As he pointed to the ceiling tiles in his store, where mall officials told him asbestos contamination took place, Greenberg said: “None of them have been removed. They tested, but they didn’t find any. Why wasn’t I let in sooner?”

That same question was on the mind of Stan Levy, owner of the center’s George Allen Shoes store.

“It would have done me good if I could have gotten my inventory out in March and April,” Levy said. “My inventory is worthless now. In the fashion industry, it’slike last year’s chopped liver. And last year’s chopped liver is not very good.”

But Levy said he was not sure that Greenberg’s successful rescue operation was good news for mall tenants because it could mean that the mall might be closed.

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Tom Leanse, an attorney for Cleveland-based mall owner F.C. Laurel Inc., said that Greenberg’s action does not indicate impending doom for the mall and that he was not arrested because it would have been inappropriate. “As far as asbestos, we still think that there are risks,” Leanse said.

He said he does not fear a run on the mall by other merchants, adding that he hopes most will wait for a final report on asbestos contamination, with a store-by-store breakdown, that he expects within two weeks.

Greenberg is among those merchants who have accused mall managers of delaying earthquake repairs to keep the mall closed while they concentrate instead on gaining approval for a new $150-million mall.

Expected to go before the Los Angeles City Council by the end of the summer, the proposal would allow owners to raze the 26-year-old mall and replace it with a modern, three-level shopping center with three department stores and 5,400 parking spaces.

Greenberg and Levy said they will both adopt a wait-and-see attitude before deciding whether to reopen their businesses.

Meanwhile, Greenberg is just happy to be back in business, even though he has to operate out of his Valley Village home and is living on his disaster insurance settlement.

He said he will make no money completing his pre-quake work orders, and without a store he can hardly expect to attract much additional business. But at least he will have fulfilled his obligation to his customers.

“This is the best day I’ve had in six months,” said Greenberg, cradling a box of negatives. “It will be a shadow of my former business, but at least I’ll be in business.”