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Phil Douglis | all galleries >> Galleries >> Gallery Thirty: When walls speak and we listen > Big wall, big film, Venice Beach, California, 2012
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16-AUG-2012

Big wall, big film, Venice Beach, California, 2012

“A Touch of Evil,” a 1958 movie directed by Orson Welles, and starring Charlton Heston and Janet Leigh, was set in a fictional town on the US-Mexico border, but much of it was shot on location in Venice Beach, California. Today, the site of the location shoot is a parking lot. I was delighted to find that the film is commemorated there with a huge black and white mural covering almost the entire wall of a building adjoining that parking lot. The mural is titled “Touch of Venice” but it is far more than just a touch. It shows Venice Beach as it looked at night in 1958, featuring illuminated arcades that once lined its main street for many blocks. (54 years later, only fragments of the arcades remain, along with the sign hanging over the street.) The mural is so large that the figures of Heston and Leigh stand at least a full story high. Using a wideangle lens, I draw scale comparisons between the cars in the mural and the actual cars in the parking lot. Three of the six cars in the parking lot at the time I made this picture happen to be white, which tie in nicely with the black and white mural. The film itself was shot entirely in black and white. The only color in the image is a red stripe on the hood of the white car at far left, the blue car with red tail lights in the center, the car draped in a beige protective cover (to protect it from the salty mist at night), and the red tail lights in the gray car at far right.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX5
1/1600s f/8.0 at 5.5mm iso400 full exif

other sizes: small medium large original auto
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Phil Douglis02-Sep-2012 22:44
You are fortunate, Iris, to be living in Los Angeles. You have a vast body of "finds" such as this awaiting you all over the city. You will find this mural right next to that "Venice" sign that still hangs across the major intersection in "downtown Venice beach." Glad you enjoyed my commentary, as well. I always try to add verbal context to my pbase images that help my viewer's appreciate what I am trying to say, and offer reasons as to why I am saying it.
Iris Maybloom (irislm)01-Sep-2012 23:37
What a wonderful find, Phil. I have never seen this mural before, but will look for it when I go back to Venice. Your commentary puts it in perspective and makes an interesting mural even more interesting.
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