204 pages

10.5 x 10 in.
East of Borneo Books, 2015

Edited by Edward Dimendberg, with contributions by Louis Adamic, James Baker, Laura Diamond Dixit, Anthony Hernandez, Karin Apollonia Müller, Leonard Nadel, Allan Sekula, and Billy Woodberry

An acclaimed photographer, artist, filmmaker, scholar, activist and faculty member at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), Sekula devoted much of his life to the theory and practice of social documentary. Writer and activist Mike Davis called Sekula “the son of the San Pedro docks and gantry cranes; the Walter Benjamin of a Los Angeles forever suspended between sweat and make-belief, riot and boosterism.”

“Facing the Music is a phenomenal collection of images brought together by Allan Sekula,” commented photographer Catherine Opie. “The project is an insightful representation of downtown Los Angeles and the emergence of Frank Gehry’s Disney Concert Hall. It is as much about the politics of downtown Los Angeles as it is a celebration of what is now an essential and iconic building on Grand Avenue.”

Designed as an exploration of the impact of Gehry's building, the book’s texts and images challenge civic complacency and celebration by engaging a vital counter-tradition of social documentary investigation. Facing the Music includes a previously unpublished essay by Sekula on the challenges of representing the city; an interview with him about the 2005 exhibition Facing the Music which he curated for the gallery at REDCAT, CalArts’ space below the Concert Hall; and an overview of the building’s history and the continuing urban transformations it has catalyzed. The publication is a unique record of social and artistic engagement in a metropolis often thought to inhibit such efforts.

Sekula, who died in 2013, was an influential teacher in CalArts Photography and Media Program for nearly three decades.

Read more about Sekula’s life and work, and the 2005 Facing the Music exhibition.

Exhibition Dates: April 14, 2005 – May 29, 2005

https://www.redcat.org/exhibition/facing-music

https://calarts.edu/about/news-and-events/press-kit/press-releases/east-of-borneo-books-launches-facing-the-music-documenting-walt-disney-concert-hall-and-the-redevelopment-of-downtown-los-angeles-a-project-by-allan-sekula