Itinerary: Photography

A picture, as they say, is worth a thousand words. If you’re one of those people who likes to see a good story, here are a few places where the photographs speak for themselves.

Friday

Learn about photography and the related technologies that support it with a visit to the UC Riverside Museum of Photography (3824 Main St., downtown Riverside. [909] 784-FOTO). Located on Riverside’s popular pedestrian mall, this 26-year-old museum is home to the Keystone-Mast archive of 350,000 stereograph prints from 1870 to 1940 and the Bingham Technology collection of 10,000 cameras and viewing devices. The museum has an interactive gallery that teaches patrons about photo technology and a collection of prints by well-known artists including Ansel Adams and Walker Evans.

Saturday

Photographer Mark Klett describes landscape photographs as “the artifacts of personal moments.” He says the longer he works, the more important it is to make photographs that tell his story as a participant in the land and not just an observer. You can be the judge of the story he depicts with a visit to “Participant Observer: Photography by Mark Klett,” an exhibit at the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens (1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. [626] 405-2141). The exhibit, which will be on display in the Virginia Steele Scott Gallery of American Art through Sept. 19, showcases 40 photographs of Western landscape taken by Klett from the late 1970s to the late 1990s.

If you’re inspired to buy a photograph, make a trip to the Fahey/Klein Gallery (148 N. La Brea Ave., Los Angeles. [323] 934-2250). The gallery is devoted to the exhibition and sale of 19th- and 20th-century rare, vintage and contemporary fine art photography by some of the most notable figures in history, including Alfred Stieglitz, Man Ray and Herb Ritts. The gallery now is displaying the works of Abelardo Morell, Herbert List, David McDermott, Peter McGough and Frederick Sommer through Sept. 4. Beginning Sept. 9, the museum will display photographs of Bob Dylan from the 1960s and the work of Mark Seliger, chief photographer for Rolling Stone magazine.

Sunday

Check out photos taken by women photographers of this century with a visit to “Defining Eye: Women Photographers of the 20th Century” at the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum (10899 Wilshire Blvd., Westwood. [310] 443-7000). The exhibit features the works of more than 80 women photographers. Drawn from a private collection, the exhibit features an international array of well-known photographers as well as some who have only been recently recognized in the history of this medium. Most of the works in the exhibition are vintage prints. Among the photographers included in the exhibit are Bernice Abbott, Alma Levenson, Diane Arbus, Flor Garduno, Nan Goldin, Mary Ellen Mark and Annie Leibovitz. The exhibit runs through Aug. 22.

If you still have time, drop by the Getty Museum (1200 Getty Center Drive, Los Angeles. (310) 440-7300). Two photo exhibits are on display through Oct. 10: “Nadar/Warhol: Paris/New York” looks at the similarities in the portraits taken by Parisian photographer Nadar (Gaspard Felix Tournachon) and Andy Warhol. Nadar and Warhol were both fascinated with creating photographs of celebrities. Also on display, “The Photographs of Hill and Adamson.” The Scottish pair teamed up in 1843, only four years after the invention of photography.