Off the beaten L.A. freeway

Mark Indig's 'Curbside Enthusiasm,' part of the 'L.A. centric' series at rampART, looks at the city's often-overlooked areas.

By Hugh Hart
Special to The Times

January 20, 2008

MARK INDIG likes to get lost on weekends. The location scout turned film production manager has snapped photos on his days off during travels to China, Thailand, Mexico, England and Louisiana on behalf of "The Village," "Titanic" and other films. A couple of years ago he finally trained his eye on Los Angeles.

"If you like urban landscape, Los Angeles is ground zero paradise," says Indig, who roamed Compton, the Harbor area and other tourist-free zones in search of eye-catching compositions.

"You have to clear your mind . . . not worry about how to get home and be really open to the environment. On weekends when there's no traffic I like to get in the car and look for images that stop me in my tracks."

Indig's photographs are on view in a show called "Curbside Enthusiasm" through Feb. 1 at rampART in Los Angeles.

They include shots of three wrecked cars that appear to crown a green fence in Wilmington, dueling blue and green dumpsters in Long Beach and an out-of-business Compton storefront paved shut with jaunty baby blue cinder blocks. There's not a human in sight. "I'd rather focus on the remnants and echoes of what people have done," Indig says, "rather than the people themselves."

Indig's show is ninth in the "L.A. centric" series of 12 photo exhibitions at rampART since the community art gallery opened last May. Designer-builder John M. Sofio started the space to showcase his own East Side photographs and boost MacArthur Park's cultural profile. He plans a group show finale in the spring. "Each photographer in this series sees a different version of Los Angeles, so they're cuttingly different from one another," Sofio says. "To put an eye on all of that has been really interesting."

--Hugh Hart