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© © 2013, John Crosley/Crosley Trust, All rights reserved, no reproduction or other use without express prior written permission from copyright holder

'Randy's Donuts'


johncrosley

Copyright: © 2013 John Crosley/Crosley Trust, All Rights Reserved, No Reproduction Without Prior Written Permission of Copyright Holder; Adobe Photoshop CC (Windows);

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© © 2013, John Crosley/Crosley Trust, All rights reserved, no reproduction or other use without express prior written permission from copyright holder

From the category:

Street

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This is Randy's Donuts, one of two or more such landmarks in

southern Los Angeles county -- this one not far from Los Angeles

International Airport. Donuts are especially good when fresh from

the fryer. Your ratings, critiques and observations are invited and

most welcome. If you rate harshly, very critically, or wish to make a

remark, please submit a helpful and constructive comment; please

share your photographic knowledge to help improve my

photography. Thanks! Enjoy! john

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Hello John, I get a feeling of isolation from this image. I suppose the lighting and darkness enhance that feeling, like there's nothing around for miles and the only thing standing between you and starvation is Randy's Donuts, they're probably very good anyway. I like the shot John and your work always stirs the imagination. Take care.

Best Regards,

Holger

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Great shot John. I love the feel of the photo. I crave finding gems like this when I road trip around the western US, even if I just stop to eat and not photograph. I am distracted by the bright part of the pole that the stop light is attached to. My eye is drawn to it and I don't really want to look there. I would remove it, as well as the no parking sign at the bottom of the same pole. Leave the stop light though. I don't think I would not crop it out, because I like all of the space around the donut shop. Thanks for sharing.

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It leaves mixed ideas; on one side there is an element of solitudine to this image, a missing human touch or element. The only human touches that are there - the cars - are shattered across the frame and seem to have to do nothing with one another.

At the same time, the place itself brings nothing but the expectation that in the morning, it's a busy place, enough people going there for a donut.... The big donut on the roof as a sweet reminder of some sort of cosiness. It's a big reminder of what's not in this photo, it kind of emphasises the emptiness around it.

It's an interesting contrast that, in my view at least, manages to elevate the image from being a landmark-photo (even if it's also that, but it's more than that). It mostly leaves me with a disturbing sense of big city life, being empty and full at the same time. It's got something haunting. Nice.

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Your critique and impression(s) are very good and hardly worthy of comment other than to give my imprimatur as a well written and subjective critique.

 

Randy's has at least two such outlets and maybe more.  I suspect in the past there may have been more in the distant pass.  There's one in the heart of South Central; just get on the bus from LAX and proceed due East and you'll pass an identical one in between 'hood houses on a corner with an identical donut on the roof, but not isolated like this one is.

 

In San Jose, far to the north, there once was a muffler shop with Paul (of Paul Bunyan fame) in giant size holding a giant muffler; torn down now I think by short-sighed redevelopers and builders, I think but what a part of Americana it once was.  In the Valley (San Fernando Valley, which is part of Los Angeles is another landmark sign, but harder to photograph).   America used to have great signs; look at the signs in classic photos from the teens through the 30s of the last century for some instances of great signs. 

 

I have memories of the perpetual 'Going Out of Business!' signs plastered for years over certain New York City stores until legislation put a halt to them in more recent years, only to be replaced in San Jose by one enterprising furniture store in an unregulated part who put up signs reading 'Going Out FOR Business!' on every window.   (Few saw the distinction.)

 

This is a much photographed donut stand, valuable I think enough to keep its corner from being demolished for some high rise building or strip shopping mall and perhaps the eventual new edge of the Eastward expanding Los Angeles International Airport which will eat its way to the Interstate 405 wiping out all sorts of residential housing and businesses just to the south. 

 

This is on a major thoroughfare to the airport via 'surface streets', so no end of business for it to sell donuts to passing workers for airport employees and businesses that service the airport and its constellation of service businesses -- the airports' own large satellite an unnamed municipality that crosses several jurisdictional boundaries (Westchester, Los Angeles, Inglewood, etc.)

 

In a way it is a photo from another time and worthy of preservation just for that.  I'm glad you like the photo as I've depicted it,  well past midnight one night from a parked car on an intersecting street.

 

Just when you think you've got me pegged, I come up with one more way to 'see', don't I?

 

;~))

 

The donuts are very good, and as noted, especially when hot; they'll even put special icing on them to order if they've just come from the fryer and you're at the window and they don't have your icing on donuts on the racks.   A landmark sign and crappy donuts would be a terrible pairing; luckily that's not the case here.

 

Your critique is most welcome.  Thanks.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

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I'm so glad you like this shot.   Its scores so far are middling but the comments are first rate; go figure!

 

This is a gem, much photographed, and I think I've done as good a job as any, for the reasons mentioned by you and others.

 

For all that you know about me, you know that what I photograph is what you see, as I do not crop out or clone much, and especially I do not clone anything out except under the most extraordinary circumstances.

 

Even if you define me as an 'artist', I also more documentarian and come from a journalism background (Associated Press) where such peccadillos could get one fired and barred from the profession of journalism forever.

 

So, no cloning from me on anything that 'looks' documentary/journalistic unless I say so, or unless it's a sensor dust artifact or some such.

 

MMMMMmmmmmm.  

 

I would love to have a 2:00 a.m. Randy's hot baker's dozen of cake donuts fresh out of the fryer and freshly frosted or even their glazed donuts or maple bars!  MMMMMMMmmmmmmm.

 

Donuts have fallen out of favor for the even more fattening 'muffins' which seem to be more low calorie (they are cake with healthy 'blueberries' but very few of the latter and very, very fattening).  Donuts make your sugar cravings satisfied, and it takes few to let you know you don't want as much as a muffin carries in calories and in the process I think you get less fat, really.

 

I suggest stopping by next time you turn in a rental car at LAX or take one out; it's on the way.  (I get compensated nothing; they don't know who I am.)

 

Thanks for the nice critique.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

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Instead of writing a critique in standard format, you actually wrote a cross between an essay and a poem; an exercise in creative writing which was very, very successful.

 

For that I congratulate you, as you conveyed your message extremely well, and I for one feel that I (and others) can experience the feelings this photo inspires in you.

 

I'm glad it pleases you.

 

It's a different posting for me, but then I do that quite frequently, though a little less in recent times.

 

You never know what I'll post next.

 

I always hope my postings will be interesting, as that is my acid test.

 

I hope you don't have to be an aficionado of donuts to appreciate this modern day documentation of what America was like in another era before modern day  'Planning Commissions' regulated everything with their collective committee 'good taste'.

 

In reality, this is 'pop art'.  (See my tribute to the pop artist of all pop artists at the end of comments under my photos to understand further my attitude toward posting and what I enjoy!)

 

Best to you, my friend.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

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Claes (Klaus) Oldenfeld) (pop artist), manifesto about making art from friendly, common objects (such as donuts?) and my feelings and relationship to his manifesto in my posting can be found in my comment at the end of my 120 pages of comments under my photos.

 

I recommend Oldenfeld's manifesto for reading and my comment for understanding my relationship to his view on what constitutes 'art' as seen from the view of a 'pop artist' as opposed to an 'abstract expressionist' -- a competing art concept at the time he began producing some of his best work.

 

You might find it interesting reading, and it may help explain why you have feelings one way or another about this posting, and also why this photo itself may be precursor to a certain form of art and even the building itself is a precursor to the concept of 'pop art' as an art 'concept'. 

It may in fact be part of the 'roots' of pop art.

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

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Lots of good thoughts on the image already. The only thing I miss is the person leaning out the window handing over the bag of donuts. To me at least that would add the organic element to inorganic surroundings and tie them together.

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Although it breaks the theme of isolation, yours is an interesting idea.

 

I'll have to cogitate on it.

 

I appreciate all helpful suggestions and just wonder if it could have been successfully depicted from this viewpoint -- the purchase you describe.

 

Thanks!

 

john

 

John (Crosley)

 

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You're right, John, "... it's a photo from another time and worthy of preservation just for that." You and I have a sense of history that is one of the few gifts nature bestows upon older people (along with thinning hair and failing eyesight). A beautifully photographed picture like this brings back a whole era as it activates a particular set of neurons in my mind. It's a time machine to the early '50's when such landmarks as The Brown Derby and other kitschy buildings caught your eye as you drove down the street.
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Add to that expanding girth and inability to pee in a straight line and finally an affinity for Flo-Max, secret of older folks.

 

I never saw the Brown Derby, and I wish it had been preserved for generations.

 

The famous signs along Times Square, even the smoker that exhaled clouds of smoke, I wish had been preserved, just for 'old times sake' and for a sense of history.

 

Look at famous older photographers for their photos of say, the Bowery with its signs, or Third Avenue under the 'El' in New York City and many of my photos from Ukraine (unfortunately in Cyrillic).

 

Planning commissions have their place, but they too can run wild.

 

'Going Out FOR Business' is my favorite, dreamed up by a client of mine and plastered over a furniture store in an unincorporated area of Santa Clara County, which turned a nondescript furniture store into a destination as thousands or tens of thousands drove by every day and a certain number just 'had' to drop by thinking they WERE going out OF business.

 

Catchy -- new owner and my client was a marketing man.

 

Of course by now, though I haven't checked, I'm certain that is long gone.

 

Photos help us remember those old times, and I'm happy to preserve them, but in the above case, there are at least TWO Randy's Donuts and this one in particular draws a huge crowd, and has wonderful donuts.

 

It deserves preserving, even by those who don't take Flo-Max.

 

Or have expanding girth and thinning hair.

 

Or can drink a six pack and hold it for three or four hours then let it go in a straight line.

 

;~))

 

Thanks for sharing your insight.

 

john


John (Crosley)

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