Photographer, Jean Ferro Looking to Place Historical Railroad Archive of the 1994 Southern California Earthquake Emergency Documentation
Eleven years ago on January 18, 1994, Los Angeles Times headlines read 33 Die, many Hurt in 6.6 Quake, L.A. Freeways Buckle, Buildings Topple." Ferro Archive contains approx. 1700 35mm transparencis and log file of b/w proof sheets. identified with Title/Dates/Place/Time. Copyright: Earthquake Emergency Jean Ferro 1994.
Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) January 22, 2005 -- Eleven years ago on January 18, the headlines of the Los Angeles Times Newspaper read 33 Die, many Hurt in 6.6 Quake, L.A. Freeways Buckle, Buildings Topple."
With the freeway down in the northern valley due to the January 17th earthquake, emergency action was taken by the Southern California Regional Rail Authority to build the Metrolink rail line from Lancaster to Union Station. Prior to this, political agendas and issues blocked rail progress in Southern California. The 6.6 earthquake, with traffic snarls, blocked roads, forced everyone to come together to help LA get back to work. Photographer Jean Ferro was hired to document this historical transition, the first significant movement for the railroad in Southern California in 50 years. On January 19, at the Burbank Airport, President Clinton held a news conference where Sen. Dianne Feinstein said, "We've got to take advantage of Metrolink and the rail network in southern California."
It was an intense project at the time, a lot of people in Los Angeles were scared to leave their home, drive under a bridge, it shook the Los Angeles community to its core," said Ferro. It was a unique opportunity to document the historical transition in California Rail history, the images deserve to be housed in an educational facility or library where the archive can be preserved, accessed for study and used for historical reference." Ferro is looking for a collector to purchase the archive.
The 1994 Earthquake Emergency archive contains 51 rolls of RGB color negative film, approximately 1700 images. There are: two sets of black and white proof sheets and one set of transparencies from the same negatives. Each film roll and transparency image is identified with project name, date, place and hour time frame.
The first twenty-nine film rolls represent a four day, 24 hour day documentation of the first major transition of the railroad in Southern California since the introduction of the automobile that took precedent 50 years earlier. The fifty-one rolls of photo documentation start with Roll # 1, January 21, at 5pm, in Lancaster, CA. Rolls #1 thru #29 contain land site excavation, workers building and expanding rail tracks and building stations. The photos also include, visiting Wash D.C. Transportation Secretary Federico Peņa, as well as the Navy CB's excavating the land at Action/Vincent Station. Roll #29, January 24, contains the inaugural ride from Lancaster Station to L.A. Union Station.
The photo archive also contains images of finishing details such as newly created paved parking, facilities, etc. photo Rolls #30 thru #41, January 27 - January 31, 1994 show the continued rail expansion of train stations Action/Vincent/Canyon Country.
At the beginning of the project, Ferro created a slide show of images for emergency meetings and also sent to Wash D.C. The images activated FEMA response to the emergency needs of Southern California. On February 16, 1994, Rolls #42 thru 43, are images from Union Station/Los Angeles showing the $3,000,000 FEMA check acceptance by/ Senator Dianne Feinstein, Councilman, Richard Alatorre with /Rail Authority Executives. Rolls #44 thru #46, March 23 documents the opening Metrolink rail stations Camarillo/Oxnard/Princess. Knowing that the new expansion of the Metrolink would encourage growth in the community, Ferro also documented the land sites and community surrounding Lancaster/Palmdale/Action Vincent /Canyon Country stations.
Rolls #47 thru #51, March 28 - Orange County Inaugural ride to Los Angeles Union Station, even Mickey Mouse took the inaugural ride on March, 28th.
Since the implementation of the 1994 rail progress, the population in the northern valley has maintained steady growth. The success of Metrolink and the connecting underground rail systems, has enhanced the Los Angeles transportation system.
"Each transparency" and "All proofs" are identified with Title/Dates/Place/Time. The portfolio contains approx. 1700 images. This is based on an average count of 36 images per roll times 51 rolls of film. Copyright: Earthquake Emergency Jean Ferro 1994.
Ferros photographic career began in 1974 in the Music Industry, portfolios contain legendary images of personalities in both film and music including Ringo Starr, David Bowie, Arianna Huffington, Larry Gelbart m and Reba McEntire to name a few. Other Los Angeles based projects by Ferro include an extensive archive of the 1990 Women In Film Festival held at the Directors Guild with images of Danny Thomas, Michael Langdon, Whoopie Goldberg, Jimmy Smits and others. In 1992 Los Angeles Cultural Affairs awarded Ferro a grant to produce a 30 minute photo documentary film Through Our Own Eyes, Self-portraits by People Without Homes" about people living on the streets of Los Angeles.
July 1996, Global Liberty, a mixed media exhibition of 42 international newspapers with an abstract image of the Statue of Liberty made its debut at Los Angeles City Hall, Henry P. Rio Bridge Gallery. Spring of 2000, DreamWorks SKG hired Ferro to document the land site of the controversial attempt to build the DreamWorks Studio at Play Vista where the Howard Hughs Aircraft hanger is part of the historical land site. For the past four years in addition to her personal photography, Jean has spearheaded the movement of Women In Photography International, http://www.womeninphotography.org into the #1 online resource center for women photographers worldwide.
Contact:
Kate Dawson
Los Angeles
(323) 462-1444
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