Stewart Street (UC Sawtelle) Santa Monica 1995

Madoka Takagi made this black-and-white photograph of Stewart Street in Santa Monica, but we don’t know when. There’s a sense of stillness, a quiet observation of the ordinary. I imagine Takagi standing on the street corner, framing the scene with her lens. The light is soft, casting gentle shadows that define the shapes of the trees and the trailers parked along the street. It's a candid, unglamorous view of urban life. I wonder if she was drawn to the way the light filtered through the leaves, or the way the telephone poles cut through the sky. This image reminds me of the work of other photographers who find beauty in the mundane, like Stephen Shore, or even Ed Ruscha's deadpan documentation of Los Angeles architecture. Artists are always in dialogue, responding to the world around them and to each other.