HELEN K. GARBER BIOGRAPHY

Helen K. Garber is known for her night urban landscapes taken in cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Paris and Venice, Italy.   Her images are exhibited internationally and are in permanent collections of museums, private and corporate collections nationwide.

Helen's work has been published in a number of books including Parents at Last, Clarkson N. Potter, 1998, Looking at Los Angeles, Metropolitan Books, 2005 and Night and Low-Light Photography, PDN, 2008.  Venice Beach, California Carnivale, Xlibris, 2005, is her digitally captured and manipulated photo essay book about her commute from home to studio via Ocean Front Walk.  It became the official commemorative book for the 2005 Venice Centennial, the first print-on-demand photo book stocked by Barnes & Noble Book Stores and won an honorable mention in the 2005 International Photography Awards.

A Night View of Los Angeles, is a 40-foot long, 360-degree panorama of the entire city of Los Angeles as seen from the Helipad of the US Bank Tower.  It was commissioned for the 2006 International Biennale of Architecture in Venice, Italy.  A second print was created for the front entrance of the international photo exhibit, Photo LA, in January 2007.  Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa presented Helen with a special commendation for the beautiful rendition of the city.

Helen then invited the most renowned Los Angeles graffiti artists to use that print as a surface to ceremoniously tag the entire city of Los Angeles at once.  She feels that McMansions, Mini-malls, electric wires and other eyesores are equal forms of urban blight as defaced property.  All forms of urban blight could be lessened with the re-introduction of arts programming into the public school system.  A Night View Collaboration was first installed as a mixed-media piece for the 2007 Venice Art Walk, Venice, CA.

Helen is directing a 5 year long group project entitled An Intimate View of Los Angeles where 30 artist/photographers of different cultures and economic backgrounds are documenting their  own neighborhood in a subjective manner. Their stories will be exhibited as individual 50 image slide shows presented simultaneously on individual digital picture frames.  A print of A Night View of Los Angeles will complete the installation to allow the viewer to understand the vastness of the territory covered in the project.  The first installation is at MINARC/Gallery Skart in Santa Monica, CA as part of the Month of Photography Festival (MOPLA). www.galleryskart.com, www.monthofphotography.com.  April 4 - June 7, 2009. The project has been invited to participate in  the NY Photo Festival, May, 2010.  It was reviewed on KCRW, Art Talk, Edward Goldman, April 22, 2009.

The phrase I live in Los Angeles means something completely completely different to every individual.  And presenting what would first hit the viewer as a cacophony of images can then be experienced close up, in an intimate manner, to give the viewer the sense of the real Los Angeles.  We enjoy dozens of different cultures, climates and geography all at the same moment in time.  One can decide to make the effort and move about to experience each neighborhood or not bother with people in the way and choose to remain ignorant of what else is happening within the region.

After viewing her 360 degree panorama taken from such a high place, Helen realized that it was a cold, distant view of the city with no sense of intimacy of the people who inhabit the space.  She reached out to her network of talented and accomplished artist friends to shoot their surroundings as often as possible starting in January, 2008. 

Urban Noir/LA – NY is a multi-media installation and formal photo exhibit that combines her night urban landscapes with text derived from pulp fiction using the city as character and jazz music.  It was first presented at the Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art in New Paltz, NY, in the fall of 2007.  L.A. Noir was exhibited at the Farmani Gallery, Los Angeles in 2008. The Los Angeles Conservancy included an installation of Urban Noir/LA as part of it's L.A. Noir Architecture Tour in November, 2008.  Helen presented the dvd in Manhattan, NY as part of a symposium on night photography in March, 2009.  She will present the updated project with original new music by John Beasley at the Annenberg Foundation of Photography, Century City on June 11, 2009.

Please see www.myspace.com/urbannoir for information on the upcoming living noir installation.

Two diptychs from a new series of Noir Narratives were included in the Night Moves exhibit at the Farmani Gallery, located in DUMBO, Brooklyn NY, on view until April 11, 2009.  This is the first time Helen has exhibited in her hometown of Brooklyn.

Helen's night urban landscapes of Los Angeles will be featured as part of the April 4th opening night festivities of Month of Photography, Los Angeles at Bergamot Station.

The Urban Noir Portfolio is featured as part of FreshFair, 2009, part of MOPLA, Month of Photography, Los Angeles.  Two pieces from the portfolio are part of the inaugural installation at the Annenberg Beach Community House, Santa Monica, CA

Helen  moved to California from New York in 1978 with her husband, Dr. Stuart H. Garber (Creator of Dr. Garber’s Natural Solutions).  They have lived with various Springer Spaniels in Santa Monica, CA for over 25 years.  She maintains a studio on Ocean Front Walk at Venice Beach.

Helen’ s representatives, full resume and portfolios can be seen at www.helenkgarber.com.