A Free Cultural Quickie In Century City!

If you're craving a little culture and find yourself anywhere near the Century City area, you should check out "The Space".

The Annenberg Space for Photography, located across from the Century Plaza Hotel, opened March of this year and exhibits both digital and print photography by some of the world's most renowned photographers and emerging talents. Believe it or not, this place is the first solely photographic cultural venue in the Los Angeles area. And, admission there is free!

The ASP building sits among a cluster of stark, modern, skyscraper office buildings in Century City and is quite small in comparison. However, their use of state-of-the-art, modern technology makes up for their lack of physical space. By using high definition, top-quality digital screens, as well as two very cool interactive Microsoft Surface tables that are controlled by your own touch, you're able to see about 1,000 digital photographs in addition to the standard printed images that you see framed on the walls. And, as an added feature, the images shown on the screens are accompanied by a series of short videos and interviews of the photographers themselves...and you can see it all in just under an hour! (for those who are pressed for time...or who suffer from ADD.)

The Space is well-planned and multi-functional; in addition to the print and digital galleries, the building features a photography reading-room and a workshop area for scheduled events including a free lecture series on Thursday evenings. And, apparently, the actual interior design of this place was influenced by the inner workings of a camera and its lens. Look up at the ceiling and you'll see what I'm talking about!

The exhibit showing now is the POYi, or The "Picture's of the Year - international" featuring award-winning photojournalism from around the world. The images are fascinating, thought-provoking and inspirational. They are political, social, topical and environmental. And, several of them I thought were really amazing!

They don't allow you to take photos while inside, so I "borrowed" a few from their website to show you.

As I left The Space, once again I was reminded that a picture is truly worth a thousand words.


Quick Tips:
1- Admission is free and parking is $3.50 during the week and $1.00 on the weekend with a parking validation. But, make sure you get it validated! Otherwise, parking will cost you $34.00...and that's ridiculous!
2- The major exhibits change about every four months - a sports photography exhibit is scheduled to follow this one - check out their website for more info.
3- Directions