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In Our Path: Finding Aid
photCL 480  
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Collection Details
 
Table of contents What's This?
  • Overview of the Collection
  • Access
  • Administrative Information
  • Historical Note
  • Scope and Content
  • Arrangement
  • Indexing Terms

  • Overview of the Collection

    Title: In Our Path
    Dates (inclusive): approximately 1982-1995
    Collection Number: photCL 480
    Creator: Gates, Jeff, 1949-
    Extent: 46 photographs : gelatin silver prints ; images 11 x 14 in., mounts 16 x 20 in.
    Repository: The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Photo Archives
    1151 Oxford Road
    San Marino, California 91108
    Phone: (626) 405-2191
    Email: reference@huntington.org
    URL: http://www.huntington.org
    Abstract: In Our Path contains two series of black-and-white photographs by Jeff Gates that chronicle the construction and impact of the I-105 Century Freeway in Los Angeles, California, between 1982 and 1983 and later from 1990 and 1995. Each set of photographs is accompanied by a letterpress title page, introduction, and numbered descriptive notes by the photographer.
    Language: English.
    Note:
    Finding aid last updated on May 29, 2014.

    Access

    Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader Services.

    Administrative Information

    Publication Rights

    The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material, nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.

    Preferred Citation

    In Our Path. The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

    Provenance

    Acquired from Jeff Gates in 2007.

    Historical Note

    Jeff Gates (born 1949) began photographing the construction and community impact of the Century Freeway in Los Angeles, California, in 1982 and 1983. The 18-mile freeway (also known as Interstate 105 and the Glenn Anderson Freeway) runs east-west from near El Segundo and the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Norwalk, and bisects the communities of Hawthorne, Willowbrook, Lynwood, and Downey.
    Planning for the freeway began in the late 1950s, but was stalled when homeowners in the path of the proposed route and other plaintiffs sued the State in 1972. The plaintiffs won an injunction against further development that lasted until 1981, when the Final Consent Decree was issued. Construction began in 1982, and the freeway opened on October 14, 1993.
    Gates's initial set of 19 photographs, entitled In Our Path, was exhibited in the Downey Museum of Art in 1983. In 1984, Gates received a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship for the series. In the early 1990s, the law firm of Hall & Associates commissioned a second set of photographs of the construction area from Gates. The two sets of photographs were exhibited together at the Downey Museum of Art and El Camino College in 1995. A photograph from the series was included in This Side of Paradise: Body and Landscape in L.A., an exhibit at the Huntington Library in June 2008.

    Scope and Content

    In Our Path contains two series of black-and-white photographs by Jeff Gates that chronicle the construction and impact of the I-105 Century Freeway in Los Angeles, California, between 1982 and 1983 and later from 1990 and 1995. The first set of 19 images focus primarily on the initial condemnation and relocation of houses and property in the proposed path of the freeway in the early 1980s. The later set of 27 images document the continued construction in the early 1990s and the opening of the freeway.
    Each set of photographs is accompanied by a letterpress title page, introduction, and numbered descriptive notes by the photographer.

    Arrangement

    The photographs are arranged numerically in the two series according to the original image numbers assigned by the photographer.

    Indexing Terms

    The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the Huntington Library's Online Catalog.  

    Subjects

    Wilson, Pete, 1933- -- Photographs.
    California. Dept. of Transportation -- Photographs.
    Abandoned houses -- Photographs.
    Construction workers -- Photographs.
    Dwellings -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
    Express highways -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
    Express highways -- Social aspects -- California -- Los Angeles -- Photographs.
    Relocation (Housing) -- California -- California Century Freeway -- Photographs.
    Roads -- California -- Los Angeles -- Design and construction -- Photographs.
    Swimming pools -- Photographs.
    Vacant lands -- Photographs.
    Transportation -- California -- Los Angeles -- Design and construction -- Photographs.
    California Century Freeway (Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Downey (Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Hawthorne (Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Photographs.
    Norwalk (Calif.) -- Photographs.

    Forms/Genres

    Documentary photographs.
    Photographs.