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This week is your last chance to see Photographer Cyndi Bemel’s series of photos which capture a unique look at South Pasadena, on display at City Hall.
The exhibit – “Into the Unknown – A Portrait of South Pasadena” – is part of the city’s Arts Council (SPARC) Gallery on the second floor at 1414 Mission Street and ends March 3.
From the time she moved to South Pasadena in 2005, Bemel immediately began to photograph intimate portraits of the streets, back roads, homes, people, events, shops, Flora “and everything in between,” she said. “Taking my camera as I venture into South Pasadena’s neighborhoods gives me an excuse to ‘look closer’ at what I otherwise might pass by.”
Bemel says the exhibit “was born from my passion as a photo-ethnographer and storyteller,” she said. “I’ve been roaming the city as an integral part of my personal journey, and this documentary project is far from over. Many of the images capture new perspectives of familiar places. I enjoy juxtaposing my images with reflections and textures of our urban landscape combining the old with the new. Experimenting with light and dark enhances the intrigue of the everyday moment. I appreciate how the black and white of my images taps into a deeper vision of what we might otherwise take for granted, a fresh visual interpretation of the day to day.”
In her work, Bemel said she strived to “capture the subtleties of the world and offer an impression of the ever-changing environment that reflects the tremendous vitality of South Pasadena.”
She is endlessly discovering something unique, beautiful and rare.
Walking the city’s 3-square-mile landscape, Bemel has climbed onto rooftops, biked on Route 66, hung out on friends’ porches “and engaged with many of the 26,000 people who give South Pasadena a strong sense of place and community,” she said of a place she calls, not only her home, but “a hidden treasure.”
