Anthony Hernandez – Beach Pictures, 1969 – 1970

Photographer: Anthony Hernandez (born Los Angeles & resides Los Angeles & Idaho)

Published by Silas Finch, NY, USA, 2016

Text: English

Printed chipboard over cloth end sheets, sewn binding, tri-tone black & white lithography, printed by Studley Press, Dalton, MA (USA)

Photobook designer: Kevin Messina

Notes:  A monograph of Anthony Hernandez’s earliest body of work created shortly after his two years of service in the U.S. Army, when he spent a tour of duty in Vietnam. His photographs appear humorous, poignant, yet there lurks a dark undercurrent. This body of work is not overtly political, but there are dark undertones as will it appears that his subjects are sleeping or resting, while incorporating enough ambiguity and lacking evidence that his subjects are actually still alive.

The prone individuals that Hernandez photographed on the beach may have been a cathartic response to his battle experiences in the Vietnam War. The wounded or dead soldiers & civilians would have had been laid out in similar prone positions. Even to the point that casualties in war have their faces covered similar in a very eerie way to those sunning themselves on the beach.

Hernandez is a west coast photographer who adapted a NYC street photographic style that is mashed with the west coast minimalist stylistic practice of Lewis Baltz. While working in Los Angeles on the left coast, he is thus perhaps lesser known than his East coast contemporaries of Arbus and Winogrand, yet still was anointed by Szarkowski at MoMA. As evident at this stage of Hernandez’s street photography career, he is using the full frame format of his 35mm film to great effect. Every square inch appears to be well thought out and visually working for the photographs selected for this publication.

Cheers,

Douglas