L.A. Unlimited

Cultural melting pot. Entertainment capital of the world. Glistening beach haven. L.A. numbers about as many identities as it does neighborhoods, and it is this social mosaic that’s celebrated in “L.A. Neighborhoods: Miracle Mile/Carthay Circle and Watts,” a photography exhibition at the Central Library. The vibrant, expressive scenes on view show diverse demographics, but the communities share an artistic mettle and a strong commitment from their residents.

From the spiraling folk-art mastery of the Watts Towers to the Screen Actors Guild headquarters in the Miracle Mile District, the city’s essence is distilled into about 30 photos from each neighborhood. “Everyone’s always wondering where Los Angeles is,” says photographer Robert Pacheco, who chronicled Miracle Mile/Carthay Circle throughout 2001. “Well, bits and pieces of it are all over the place.”

The show is part of a project launched in 1996 by the nonprofit Photo Friends of the Los Angeles Public Library to document L.A. County neighborhoods as they headed into a new century. In Carthay Circle, Pacheco roamed the area bordered by Wilshire and Olympic boulevards and La Cienega Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue. His Miracle Mile territory fell loosely within Olympic and Beverly boulevards and Fairfax and La Brea avenues. In the Miracle Mile District, the freelancer witnessed a Bob Barker appearance at CBS Television City and a night at Club Makeup, a glam-rock party in the El Rey Theatre, among other scenes.

With landmarks such as the sprawling Park La Brea apartment complex and historic Farmers Market, Pacheco sought out personal stories. One Saturday, he met with Pico, a happy-go-lucky shepherd mix, and the adoptive caretakers who had rescued the pup months earlier at the corner of Wilshire and La Brea. Another weekend, Pacheco headed to Albertson’s Wedding Chapel and snapped Edwin Wendt and Annaliza Saclolo’s ceremony; Wendt, a Navy man, was shipping out to Japan a few days later.

Figures who helped shape the face of Watts populate freelance photographer James W. Jeffrey Jr.’s collection, snapped between 2001 and 2002 in the neighborhood above the 105 Freeway, between parallel stretches of the 110 Freeway and South Alameda Street. Jeffrey, who’s been taking pictures of the neighborhood since the late 1960s, considers the residents a part of his extended family. “It’s like a person hired to photograph a family over a series of years,” he says. “I see Watts that way.” Among his works: an incisive portrait of the Watts Prophets, pioneering hip-hop rappers who write about life on urban streets; and a heartfelt image of local icon Sweet Alice Harris, founder of Watts Parents, a program helping disadvantaged kids, surrounded by her devoted staff.

“I’ve seen [Watts] change quite dramatically over the years,” Jeffrey says. “The constabulary of the community is still black, but it’s largely Latino now. Watts reflects the Los Angeles phenomenon of ever-changing perspectives.” This shift is represented with scenes of a soccer field filled with Latino children, dancers performing at a Cinco de Mayo celebration, and a three-generational portrait of a great-grandmother, grandmother and grandchildren clutching one another.

After the images are displayed, they will be added to the library’s permanent collection of more than 2 1/2 million photos. Carolyn Kozo Cole, the library’s photography curator, says the project is attracting the top echelon of shutterbugs. “These are the type of photographs that when people find them 40 or 50 years later, they’re real treasures.”