A playful portrait of David Hockney taken by award-winning celebrity portrait photographer Michael Childers will be available for bidding at City Hearts’ 4th Annual Fresh Focus Photo Auction, November 1st at The Leica Gallery in West Hollywood. Proceeds from the auction benefit City Hearts: Kids Say Yes to the Arts, a non-profit organization that operates arts programs for underprivileged youth in Los Angeles.
One of the founders of Andy Warhol’s Interview magazine, Michael Childers has photographed more than 200 magazine covers for publications including Elle, Life and Vogue. Working mostly in black & white, he has captured the legends of pop culture and the art world. Notable subjects include actors Natalie Wood, Robert Wagner, Clint Eastwood, Catherine Deneuve, Rock Hudson and Carol Channing, and artists Andy Warhol, Sam Francis, Edward Ruscha, Robert Graham, and Ed Moses.
Childers’s portrait of Hockney is an homage to a famous 1911 photograph by Jacques-Henri Lartigue of his brother Zissou floating in a pool. “I showed Lartigue’s photo to David, who thought it was interesting,” recalls Childers. “He agreed to pose in a small raft, even though he was wearing a $12,000 Savile Row linen suit.” Famed gallery owner Peter Fetterman called it the most iconic image of David Hockney ever taken.
The City Hearts’ 4th Annual Fresh Focus Photo Auction will feature photographs from many renowned commercial and fine art photographers, studio photographers and celebrity photographers. They include Jeff Bridges, Doug Kirkland, Herb Ritts, Greg Gorman, George Hurrell, Leigh Weiner, Eli Reed, Anthony Friedkin, Julia Dean, Michael Semaan, Helen K. Garber, Ruven Afanador, Jenny Okun and Brian Leatart, among many others. High-profile Members of the American Society of Cinematographers such as Richard Crudo, Russell Carpenter, David Darby, James Chressanthis, and Charlie Lieberman have donated still photography from their gallery showings.
About City Hearts
CITY HEARTS: For over 30 years, www.cityhearts.org programs have been that very special place for children to grow, experience the Arts, and learn skills that help motivate and enhance school involvement, community engagement, and a sense of caring and compassion for their local and the global communities while encouraging and inspiring children to reach their full potential. Founded in 1984 by Juvenile Court Public Defenders, Bob and Sherry Jason, City Hearts has provided unique training and experiences in the Arts to over 30,000 children since our inception. We believe that intervention and prevention are key elements to nurturing our children to become creative, compassionate and responsible young adults. City Hearts is Southern California’s pre-eminent Arts education outreach organization.
Fresh Focus: A New Shot at Life, City Hearts’ Photography program, encourages students to shoot with cameras – not guns. “We teach our students to evaluate their lives and community with a critical eye so that they may, in turn, educate others about their world and tell their ‘story behind the shot’,” Jason explains.
What: City Hearts: 4th Annual Fresh Focus Photo Auction
When: Sunday, November 1, 2015. 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.
Where: The Leica Gallery, 8783 Beverly Blvd, West Hollywood, CA 90048
Tickets and information: www.cityhearts.org
