Photographer, Jean Ferro Looking to Place Historical Railroad Archive of the 1994 Southern California Earthquake Emergency Documentation
Eleven years ago on January 18, 1994, Los Angeles Times headlines read “33 Die, many Hurt in 6.6 Quake, L.A. Freeways Buckle, Buildings Topple.” Ferro Archive contains approx. 1700 35mm transparencis and log file of b/w proof sheets. identified with Title/Dates/Place/Time. Copyright: Earthquake Emergency Jean Ferro 1994.
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) January 22, 2005 -- Eleven years ago on January 18,
the headlines of the Los Angeles Times Newspaper read “33 Die, many Hurt in 6.6
Quake, L.A. Freeways Buckle, Buildings Topple.”
With the freeway down in
the northern valley due to the January 17th earthquake, emergency action was
taken by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority to build the Metrolink
rail line from Lancaster to Union Station. Prior to this, political agendas and
issues blocked rail progress in Southern California. The 6.6 earthquake, with
traffic snarls, blocked roads, forced everyone to come together to help LA get
back to work. Photographer Jean Ferro was hired to document this historical
transition, the first significant movement for the railroad in Southern
California in 50 years. On January 19, at the Burbank Airport, President Clinton
held a news conference where Sen. Dianne Feinstein said, "We've got to take
advantage of Metrolink and the rail network in southern California.”
“It
was an intense project at the time, a lot of people in Los Angeles were scared
to leave their home, drive under a bridge, it shook the Los Angeles community to
its core,” said Ferro. “It was a unique opportunity to document the historical
transition in California Rail history, the images deserve to be housed in an
educational facility or library where the archive can be preserved, accessed for
study and used for historical reference.” Ferro is looking for a collector to
purchase the archive.
The 1994 Earthquake Emergency archive contains 51
rolls of RGB color negative film, approximately 1700 images. There are: two sets
of black and white proof sheets and one set of transparencies from the same
negatives. Each film roll and transparency image is identified with project
name, date, place and hour time frame.
The first twenty-nine film rolls
represent a four day, 24 hour day documentation of the first major transition of
the railroad in Southern California since the introduction of the automobile
that took precedent 50 years earlier. The fifty-one rolls of photo documentation
start with Roll # 1, January 21, at 5pm, in Lancaster, CA. Rolls #1 thru #29
contain land site excavation, workers building and expanding rail tracks and
building stations. The photos also include, visiting Wash D.C. Transportation
Secretary Federico Peña, as well as the Navy CB's excavating the land at
Action/Vincent Station. Roll #29, January 24, contains the inaugural ride from
Lancaster Station to L.A. Union Station.
The photo archive also contains
images of finishing details such as newly created paved parking, facilities,
etc. photo Rolls #30 thru #41, January 27 - January 31, 1994 show the continued
rail expansion of train stations Action/Vincent/Canyon Country.
At the
beginning of the project, Ferro created a slide show of images for emergency
meetings and also sent to Wash D.C. The images activated FEMA response to the
emergency needs of Southern California. On February 16, 1994, Rolls #42 thru 43,
are images from Union Station/Los Angeles showing the $3,000,000 FEMA check
acceptance by/ Senator Dianne Feinstein, Councilman, Richard Alatorre with /Rail
Authority Executives. Rolls #44 thru #46, March 23 documents the opening
Metrolink rail stations Camarillo/Oxnard/Princess. Knowing that the new
expansion of the Metrolink would encourage growth in the community, Ferro also
documented the land sites and community surrounding Lancaster/Palmdale/Action
Vincent /Canyon Country stations.
Rolls #47 thru #51, March 28 - Orange
County Inaugural ride to Los Angeles Union Station, even Mickey Mouse took the
inaugural ride on March, 28th.
Since the implementation of the 1994 rail
progress, the population in the northern valley has maintained steady growth.
The success of Metrolink and the connecting underground rail systems, has
enhanced the Los Angeles transportation system.
"Each transparency" and
"All proofs" are identified with Title/Dates/Place/Time. The portfolio contains
approx. 1700 images. This is based on an average count of 36 images per roll
times 51 rolls of film. Copyright: Earthquake Emergency Jean Ferro
1994.
Ferro’s photographic career began in 1974 in the Music Industry,
portfolios contain legendary images of personalities in both film and music
including Ringo Starr, David Bowie, Arianna Huffington, Larry Gelbart m and Reba
McEntire to name a few. Other Los Angeles based projects by Ferro include an
extensive archive of the 1990 Women In Film Festival held at the Directors Guild
with images of Danny Thomas, Michael Langdon, Whoopie Goldberg, Jimmy Smits and
others. In 1992 Los Angeles Cultural Affairs awarded Ferro a grant to produce a
30 minute photo documentary film “Through Our Own Eyes, Self-portraits by People
Without Homes” about people living on the streets of Los Angeles.
July
1996, Global Liberty, a mixed media exhibition of 42 international newspapers
with an abstract image of the Statue of Liberty made its debut at Los Angeles
City Hall, Henry P. Rio Bridge Gallery. Spring of 2000, DreamWorks SKG hired
Ferro to document the land site of the controversial attempt to build the
DreamWorks Studio at Play Vista where the Howard Hugh’s Aircraft hanger is part
of the historical land site. For the past four years in addition to her personal
photography, Jean has spearheaded the movement of Women In Photography
International, http://www.womeninphotography.org into the #1 online resource
center for women photographers worldwide.
Contact:
Kate Dawson
Los
Angeles
(323) 462-1444
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Source : http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/1/prweb200046.htm