60 (Pomona Freeway) Montebello, Monterey Park, & East LA, 1973

1973, One could check out a Speed Graphic 4x5" film camera from the East LA College Photography division stockroom, then put the camera to use over a weekend for a class assignment, or as a self-assignment of imagined importance equal to the effort incorporating the use of that large camera and film.  Thank you to Jim Staub for this fantastic photo.

The camera and tripod went up the side of the dump embankment off the 60 (Pomona Freeway) in either Montebello or Monterey Park jurisdiction, but what is know is the westerly direction I aimed the camera. The city of Montebello is at left of the freeway, Monterey Park and East LA on right of the freeway. The objective was to capture Los Angeles from my hometown, and this was that unusually clear day for the smog-era to carry out the photo. 1973; the LA skyline is still sparse enough to distinguish individual buildings, including LA City Hall the first of that high rise of the horizon. The tallest in the photo is Crocker Bank Tower. It has to be a weekend, and I would narrow it down to a Sunday, with that light traffic on the freeway, just 7 to 8 years old. My twin brother, John Staub had been taking photos of and from the dump once we owned cameras and he was likely with me. This picture would be that clear statement about suburban Monterey Park connected to Los Angeles by this umbilical freeway. I made one exposure and slide down the loose, angled covered city refuse and headed back home, never fully confident about that latent image in the film holder waiting to be developed.

I imagined a 50 year update with this anchor photo. The dump is different though. High security fences and their own cameras... and no longer a refuse facility. A Mayan -like human landform of compacted dirt, outgassing the disposed elements that never died and lives on. It becomes a new form, like a city never settled. Jim Staub Dec, 24, 2024.