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Drinkwater (Harry) Photographs
2011.R.23
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Title: Harry Drinkwater photographs documenting Los Angeles art and
Architecture
Date (inclusive): 1950-2010
Number: 2011.R.23
Creator/Collector:
Drinkwater, Harry,
1919-2014
Physical Description:
9 Linear Feet
(5 boxes and 1flatfile)
Repository:
The Getty Research Institute
Special Collections
1200 Getty Center Drive, Suite 1100
Los Angeles 90049-1688
reference@getty.edu
URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10020/askref
(310) 440-7390
Abstract: The collection of over 140 photographic
prints and 1200 negatives represents a portion of the professional and personal output of
Harry Drinkwater, a Venice, California-based Black photographer who documented Los Angeles's
mid-century modern design movement as well as its wider artistic and social circles. Los
Angeles-based Black artists, architects, and designers and their works feature prominently
in the collection.
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Language: Collection material is in English.
Harry W. Drinkwater was born in Bakersfield, California on March 28, 1919 and grew up in
Yountville, in one of the area's only Black families. At around age 13 he left his family
and headed south to San Diego, Los Angeles, and Venice, but returned to Yountville in 1938
to finish high school. He joined the service in 1942 and was stationed in Weymouth, England
as part an all-Black unit of the communication corps. At the very end of his tour of duty a
turn at the camera during the shooting of his company's group photograph provided his first
encounter with the possibilities of photography.
After the war, Drinkwater returned to Bakersfield but eventually made his way to Los
Angeles, where he worked odd jobs, before joining the Civilian Conservation Corps, working
at the Mexico-United States border near Tecate. From 1947 to 1949, Drinkwater used the G. I.
Bill to attend the Fred Archer School of Photography, which had been founded in part to
train veterans. Archer, who worked early on in the pictorialist style, had also been a movie
studio photographer and an early proponent of advertising photography. His curriculum, which
prepared veterans for work in commercial photography, joined formal experimentation with
Hollywood film-style portraiture.
Following his graduation from Archer, Drinkwater worked for the Black community-based
newspapers
The Eagle (1947 to 1949) and
The Sentinel (1949 to 1955), and for
Elegant: The Magazine for Fashionable Living in the 1960s. In the 1950s, he also
worked for Kelsey Screens, manufacturers of shoji-type screens, before becoming the primary
photographer (1958-1961) for the modernist landscape architect, Garret Eckbo, whose
Kandinsky-esque garden designs were influential in the development of mid-century
architectural design. Although Drinkwater's negatives, as work-for-hire, were retained by
Eckbo, his photographs are featured in Eckbo's books
Urban Landscape
Design
(1964) and
The Landscape We See (1969).
From the time he first picked up a camera in the late 1940s Drinkwater never stopped
photographing. His work, at times quite stylized, belongs to a mid-century scene that is
linked to Los Angeles's jazz, Beatnik, and modernist movements. Drinkwater's subjects ranged
from art and architecture, to interior and landscape design, and to popular culture. He
documented the changing cultural landscapes of Venice and Los Angeles, photographing Black
artists and their work, as well as aspects of the area's wider artistic and social circles.
Drinkwater photographed the work of contemporary Los Angeles designers including that of
his close friend, John Smith, who created the interiors of John Lautner's Chemosphere house.
For the landmark 1966 exhibition
66 Signs of Neon, the first
large-scale artistic response to the 1965 Watts Riots, Drinkwater worked with artist Noah
Purifoy to photograph works for its exhibition catalogue
Junk Art: 66
Signs of Neon
. He also documented the work of Los Angeles artists such as DeWain
Valentine and Gordon Wagner.
Drinkwater lived in Venice, California for over six decades, where he was both a fixture
and chronicler of the area's vibrant arts scene. He died in 2014 at the age of 95.
Sources consulted:
Aushenker, Michael. "Harry Drinkwater, 1919 – 2014,"
The
Argonaut
, December 1, 2014.
https://argonautnews.com/harry-drinkwater-1919-2014/
Getty Research Institute. "Modern Art in Los Angeles: Harry Drinkwater Oral History
Interview," 2010, The Getty Research Institute Modern Art in Los Angeles and Pacific
Standard Time Recordings, 2003-, accession number IA40018.
Open for use by qualified researchers.
Contact
Library Reproductions and Permissions .
Harry Drinkwater photographs documenting Los Angeles art and architecture, 1950-2004, The
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles, Accession no. 2011.R.23.
http://hdl.handle.net/10020/cifa2011r23
Acquired in 2011.
Processed by Beth Ann Guynn in 2015 who wrote the finding aid. Guynn updated the finding
aid in 2020.
The respository's Pacific Standard Time collection contains an interview with Drinkwater
entitled Modern Art in Los Angeles: Harry Drinkwater oral history interview, 2010,
Institutional Archives accession number 2012.IA.101.
Scope and Content of Collection
The collection of over 140 photographic prints and 1200 negatives represents a portion of
Harry Drinkwater's professional and personal output and documents Los Angeles's mid-century
design movement as well as its wider artistic and social circles. The Venice-based
photographer's work captures the changing cultural landscapes of Venice and Los Angeles in
the mid- to-late twentieth century: the opening of architect Paul Williams's Golden State
Mutual Insurance Company building in 1949, the first Black owned insurance firm in the city;
the performances of dancers Thelma Oliver and Ruth Saturensky; the artwork of Camille
Billops, Robert Boggs, and Dewain Valentine; and the revitalization of Venice Beach. Black
artists, architects, and designers and their works feature prominently in the
collection.
Series I, Architecture and interior design, 1950-2010, primarily comprises photographs of
work by noted Los Angles-area architects and designers, including Black practitioners such
as Paul and John Williams, John Smith, Robert Kennard, and Tommy Greene. Three negatives
depict Paul Williams's Golden State Mutual Life Insurance building. A few portraits are also
included here, notably one of decorator John Smith seated in John Lautner's Chemosphere
House. The photographs Drinkwater took for Kelsey Screens represent some of his first
architectural work for hire.
Series II, Artists, 1960-2004, comprises a cross section of Drinkwater's documentation of
Southern California artists, filmmakers, gallerists, and actors. Included are views of
artists' studios; photographs of artists and actors at work; and portraits. Black members of
the artistic community represented here include Don Amis, Bill Attaway, Camille Billops,
Roland Charles, Thelma Oliver, and Noah Purifoy. Many of the artists, including Charlie
Nothing, Bill Attaway, and Dewain Valentine, were part of the local Venice Beach art scene,
while others such as Gordon Wagner, Don Amis, Roland Charles, and Noah Purifoy worked in the
greater Los Angeles area. The artists represented range from up-and-coming, to established,
to perennially counterculture artists. Also included here are few of Drinkwater's own
projects as well as portraits of Drinkwater made by unknown photographers. Included are
views of artists' studios; photographs of artists and actors at work; and portraits. Black
members of the artistic community represented here include Don Amis, Bill Attaway, Camille
Billops, Roland Charles, Thelma Oliver, and Noah Purifoy. Many of the artists, including
Charlie Nothing, Bill Attaway, and Dewain Valentine, were part of the local Venice Beach art
scene, while others such as Gordon Wagner, Don Amis, Roland Charles, and Noah Purifoy worked
in the greater Los Angeles area. The artists represented range from up-and-coming, to
established, to perennially counterculture artists. Also included here are few of
Drinkwater's own projects as well as portraits of Drinkwater made by unknown
photographers.
The photographs in Series III are primarily related to Venice, Santa Monica, and other
southern California coastal locations, with an emphasis on Venice Beach and environs, where
Drinkwater lived and worked for over six decades. A black-and-white joined panorama from the
late 1970s or early 1980s records Ocean Front Walk, as it once again became as a tourist
destination after a long decline following the closure of Venice's amusement piers and dance
halls that began in the late 1940s and continued into the 1960s. Drinkwater's photographs
capture the vibrant life of the area from the late 1970s to the beginning of the
twenty-first century. Subjects range from views of legendary cultural venues such as the
Comeback Inn, Venice's jazz showcase, and Mark Kornfeld's Sponto Gallery, to images of
Venice boardwalk street performers, the Venice Graffiti Pit, and the annual Hare Krishna
parade. Also found in this series are views of Santa Monica and other beach communities
taken from the 1960s to the 1980s, and views of Los Angeles freeway construction in
1964.
Organized in three series:
Series I. Architecture and interior design, 1950-2010, undated;
Series II.
Artists, 1960-2004, undated;
Series III. Venice,
Santa Monica and other coastal locations, 1963-2001, undated.
Nothing, Charlie
Valentine, DeWain, 1936-
Wagner, Gordon, 1915-1987
Oliver, Thelma, 1941-
Purifoy, Noah, 1917-2004
Williams, Paul R.,
1894-1980
Attaway, William
Amis, Don
Smith, John
Billops, Camille
Pereira &
Luckman
Art, American -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th century
Architects -- Los Angeles -- California -- Portraits
Art galleries, Commercial -- California -- Los Angeles
Architecture -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th century
Graffiti -- Venice (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Street art -- Venice (Los Angeles, Calif.)
Waterfronts -- California -- 20th century
Piers -- California -- 20th century
Beaches -- California -- 20th century
Artists -- California -- Portraits
Architecture, Modern -- 20th century -- California, Southern
African American art -- California -- Los Angeles
Venice (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Description and travel
Pacific Palisades (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Description and
travel
Pacific Ocean Park (Santa Monica, Calif.) -- Description and
travel
Pacific Coast Highway -- Description and travel
Santa Monica (Calif.) -- Description and travel
Venice (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Buildings, structures, etc. -- 20th
century
Venice (Los Angeles, Calif.) -- Social life and customs
Los Angeles (Calif.) -- Buildings, structures, etc. -- 20th
century
Gelatin silver prints -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th
century
Black-and-white negatives -- California -- Los Angeles -- 21st
century
Digital prints -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th
century
Digital prints -- California -- Los Angeles -- 21st
century
Panoramas -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th century
Contact sheets -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th
century
Inkjet prints -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th century
Inkjet prints -- California -- Los Angeles -- 21st century
Chromogenic color prints -- California -- Los Angeles -- 21st
century
Chromogenic color prints -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th
century
Black-and-white negatives -- California -- Los Angeles -- 20th
century
Drinkwater, Harry,
1919-2014