Leonard Nadel photographs and other material relating to housing and urban redevelopment in Los Angeles, 1947-1998 (bulk 1947-1957)

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Nadel, Leonard 1916-1990. Leonard Nadel photographs and other material relating to housing and urban redevelopment in Los Angeles, 1947-1998 (bulk 1947-1957)

Leonard Nadel photographs and other material relating to housing and urban redevelopment in Los Angeles, 1947-1998 (bulk 1947-1957)

http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/84944340

The collection consists of negatives, contact prints, notes, unpublished books, and related documents produced by Leonard Nadel from 1948-1953, just prior to and during the period when he worked as a documentary photographer for the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles (HACLA). Series I consists primarily of negatives, contact prints, and notes that Nadel produced while working for HACLA, and on related urban development, public housing, and slum documentation projects. In addition to documentation of Los Angeles public housing projects such as Avalon Gardens, Ramona Gardens, and Basilone Homes, there are photographic surveys, sometimes block by block, of the city's slums and historic areas targeted for demolition and revitalization, including the Civic Center area, Bunker Hill, Elysian Park, and Chávez Ravine. Several of these projects were championed by or carried out under the auspices of the Community Redevelopment Agency (CRA). There are photographs of the planning meetings of city officials and architects (including Richard Neutra, Robert Alexander, and Lloyd Wright), urban redevelopment commission tours, hearings, and conferences. Also included are a few photographs of slums in New York, as well as a small amount of material related to Frank Wilkinson, the assistant director of HACLA, who was fired from the organization in 1953 after refusing to disclose his political affiliations to the California Anti-Subversive Committee, a copy of the The 8th, 9th, and 10th consolidated annual report of the Housing Authority of Los Angeles illustrated with photographs by Nadel and other HACLA photographers, and a copy of And ten thousand more, the 1949 University of Southern California Student Film produced for HACLA. Series II contains Nadel's photographic materials and notes on Pueblo del Rio and Aliso Village, his largest photographic projects of the late 1940s. He documented Pueblo del Rio in 1947 and 1948, and then went on to photograph Aliso Village in 1948 and 1949. Also included are the two large leather-bound volumes he compiled based on this material. Through photographs and text, these books tell in detail the stories of the two housing projects, focusing not just on the architecture and layout of the complexes, but also recording the family lives and project-supported social networks of the tenants. In 1949 he made a trip to Washington, D.C. and New York City to meet with supporters and potential publishers for his book Aliso Village, U.S.A. The related correspondence and Nadel's meeting notes are included in this series. Although there was interest in these photographic projects, the books were never published.

8.75 linear ft. (14 boxes)1 videocassette of 1 (VHS) : 1/2 in. ; original.

Getty Research Institute