Patrick Nagatani
Downtown L.A.

Downtown L.A.
Downtown L.A.
Downtown L.A.
ArtistAmerican, born 1948
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Downtown L.A.
Date1984
PlaceLos Angeles, California, United States
MediumDye diffusion transfer print
DimensionsImage: 24 × 20 7/8 in. (61 × 53 cm)
Sheet: 29 1/16 × 21 15/16 in. (73.8 × 55.8 cm)
Credit LineThe Allan Chasanoff Photographic Collection
Object number91.936
Not on view

Explore Further

Department
Photography
Object Type
DescriptionThe collaboration between photographer Patrick Nagatani and painter Andrée Tracey began in 1983 when Nagatani was offered two days’ use of Polaroid’s massive 20 x 24–inch camera. “We spent six months preparing a set, five hours installing it, and then the whole shoot was over in 20 minutes,” noted Nagatani. Their elaborately constructed and uniformly colored image Downtown L.A. is peppered with irony and humor despite its dark forecast— the environment of Los Angeles after nuclear war. Though it is clear calamity has occurred, the factory outside seems unchanged. “It’s about a simulated version of reality,” Nagatani noted, “showing the fakeness, but addressing a potentially real situation.”

ProvenanceAllan Chasanoff, New York; given to MFAH, 1991.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Signed in silver ink, recto, lower left: “DOWNTOWN L.A.” 1984
Signed in silver ink, recto, lower right: NAGATANI / Tracey
Signed in silver ink, recto, lower right: NAGATANI / Tracey

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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