Patrick73: Photographer of the other Hollywood

Photo by: Patrick 73

What does it mean to be a photographer in Hollywood? Red carpets, celebrities, beautiful, young pampered things? Patrick73 lives and works here in LA and his photos of Hollywood do not fall into any of these categories.

I found him on Flickr, where his "Hollywood Diary" set shows a world of blurred reality: A woman sitting precariously on a roof ledge. A distant figure in the mists of Griffith Park. A desk with emptied drawers on an old gummed-up sidewalk of old Los Angeles.

Patrick works as an assistant (motion) cameraman on various TV and film projects. But what he really wants to do is shoot still life. Like the best cinematographers from old Hollywood, he has an invisible hand and a fantastic eye that is never forced or self-conscious. His colors are true. He gently weaves light and shadows. One is seduced by his work.

There is an art to how he takes photos, not achievable by Adobe Photoshop dog tricks or "look at what I did dude" digital manipulations. His photos are taken with film. That's right: film.