The Los Angeles Street Collective 2023 (Hybrid Learning - One Year)

Hybrid Learning (Online and In-Person)

The Los Angeles Street Collective (LASC) is a dynamic group of street photographers committed to visually capturing the spirit of Los Angeles and integrating the work back into the community. We photograph activity in public spaces, attempting to redefine traditional notions of street photography while interpreting the shades and rhythms of a sprawling habitat where diverse worlds clash and merge in complex ways. We nourish each other’s creative journeys while also engaging in deep dialogue about the work, both on an individual and collective level.

The Los Angeles Street Collective is sponsored by LACP and offers several outstanding opportunities for its members to spotlight their work.

BENEFITS INCLUDE:
• Your street photography work featured on the Los Angeles Street Collective website sponsored and hosted by LACP. (Several members have been contacted through the website with offers for paid commissioned work.)

• Prominent search engine optimization results under “Los Angeles Street Photography.”

• A dedicated annual Los Angeles Street Collective group show, exhibited at LACP.

• Presentations by Guest Speakers at various monthly meetings.

• Opportunities during LACP’s Annual Street Week in LA Festival, including sharing your street portfolio work/books and participating in a pop-up exhibition.

• Opportunities to publish your work in a Los Angeles Street Collective Zine.

• Annual membership includes one collective online zoom meeting and two scheduled street shoots per month for 12 months (12 online meetings + 24 scheduled street shoots).

PREREQUISITES:
There are no prerequisites for joining the collective but there is an application process. We are looking for work that meets a certain level of criteria. Your submission will be reviewed by a small group of accomplished street photographers. If your work meets the criteria, it will be accepted and you will receive an invitation into the collective.

APPLICATION PROCESS:
Submissions are open and reviewed annually in October and November for membership inclusion in the following calendar year.

Please include the following in your submission email:
• Your Full Name as you would like it to read on the website and other collective materials
• 15-20 images of your best street photographs taken in Los Angeles (the date does not matter – but they must be of Los Angeles and made by you)
—–image specs: 1400px on the longer side at 72dpi, saved as JPG
• Images should be named as follows in your desired sequencing order:
—–(First Name)_(Last Name)_01.jpg
—–(First Name)_(Last Name)_02.jpg
—–e.g.: Jane_Doe_01.jpg
• Your current Bio – 1 paragraph, written in 3rd person
• Your Statement about photographing on the street – 1 paragraph, written in 1st person
• Your website link
• Your Instagram link
• Send email to info@lacphoto.org
• Write LA STREET COLLECTIVE APPLICATION in your Subject Line

MEMBERSHIP:
• Annual Membership fee is $700.00 and covers one full calendar year (Jan – Dec).
• Membership is up for renewal in the last 2 months of the year (Nov – Dec). You can decide at that time to renew, freeze, or forfeit.
—–If you renew, you will continue to receive the benefits listed above for the following calendar year.
—–If you freeze, you pause your membership for the upcoming calendar year and therefore do not receive the benefits actively during that time, but you will still remain on the LASC website and will have the option to return to the collective in the year following that. This option can only be used for one year maximum.
—–If you choose to forfeit, you will be removed from the Los Angeles Street Collective roster and will no longer receive the benefits listed above.
• For membership to be renewed for the upcoming year, annual dues must be paid by December 15th.

LASC will be led and organized by street photographer Safi Alia Shabaik (see below for bio)

The first group session will meet online via zoom on Thursday, January 12, 2023. Subsequent zoom and shoot sessions will be scheduled later.

Safi Alia Shabaik (https://flashbulbfloozy.com/; IG@flashbulbfloozy), known by her moniker flashbulbfloozy, is a Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist working in analog and digital photography, collage, sculpture, and experimental video. She discovered her visual voice at the early age of five in a children’s pinhole camera class at the California Museum of Science and Industry. She attended UCLA, earning her B.A. in Fine Art with honors. Under the mentorship of Catherine Opie, she learned the art of large-scale color printing in Opie’s custom-built darkrooms. Upon a move to New York, Safi became fashion stylist, photographic documentarian, personal assistant, travel companion, and confidante to the legendary icon Ms. Grace Jones, in her personal and public lives. Safi was given free rein to photograph anytime they were together.

Safi’s photographic work explores identity, persona, transformation, daily life, and the humanity of all people. Her subject matter spans the self, family, street life, fringe culture, and counterculture – people who push their bodies to extremes and challenge societal norms. She has studied with and assisted many well-respected Street Photographers: Sam Abell, Matt Stuart, Stuart Franklin, Nick Turpin, Gus Powell, David Gibson, Thomas Alleman, Ibarionex Perello, Kevin Weinstein, and Julia Dean.

Safi exhibits her work nationally and has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, Black + White Photography, Lenscratch, Alta Journal, Catalyst: Interviews, Edge of Humanity, The Advocate, Upworthy.com, CameraCraft, Artillery, and in Grace Jones’s book: I’ll Never Write My Memoirs. Safi has been featured on The Candid Frame (episode 465). Her work has earned her recognition in PhotoLucida’s Critical Mass Top 50 and as the first (ever) recipient of the Las Fotos Project Foto Award for Self-Expression, presented by the Photographic Arts Council Los Angeles. In collaboration with the Parkinson’s Foundation, Safi is the proud recipient of a Visual Arts grant from the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA). She is a founding member of both the Los Angeles Street Collective and FERN, a bicoastal multiethnic art collective of six women. She has presented her work upon invitation at Open Show, Alta Asks Live, and at several high schools and colleges in the greater Los Angeles area. A lover of the human form, the artist is also an award-winning mortician.

A link for the Zoom class meeting will be emailed to the attendees prior to the start date. Please read the instructions included in the email. If you have additional questions please contact Kevin Weinstein or Janis McGavin at info@lacphoto.org.