Catching Sight: Viewfinding Tour is a free digital guide to various sites in Los Angeles inspired by Corita’s photography and the diverse city that shaped her work and continues to encompass her legacy.
The tour highlights a number of locations that were central to Corita's life, work, and legacy. Each stop features a collection of historical photographs drawn from Corita Art Center’s 35mm slide collection and a Corita-inspired activity.
The five locations featured are Lazy Acres Natural Market Los Feliz location(formerly Market Basket), Corita’s former studio, American Film Institute (formerly Immaculate Heart College), De Longpre Park, and Watts Towers Arts Center.
The activities are adapted from her classroom assignments and the beloved book, Learning by Heart (co-written by Jan Steward and Corita Kent).
To participate in this tour, you will need the Bloomberg Connects app from the App Store or Google Play:
You will also need a viewfinder. What is that? In Corita’s words, it is “a device which does the same thing as the camera lens... It helps take things out of context, allows us to see for the sake of seeing, and enhances our quick-looking and decision-making skills.” In Corita’s time, the simplest way to get your hands on a finder was to use an empty 35mm slide holder, but those are less common these days. For our purposes, you could do one of the following:
1) Go to the Lazy Acres Natural Market Los Feliz location (the site of the former Market Basket and the first location on the tour) during business hours and get your free viewfinder at the counter next to the checkout.
2) Make your own by cutting a rectangular hole out of a heavy piece of paper or cardboard
This tour was produced with generous support from Bloomberg Philanthropies, Immaculate Heart Community, Lazy Acres Natural Market, Henry Luce Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, National Trust for Historic Preservation, Teiger Foundation, and the Ruth Arts Foundation