Photo essay
Field Trip to San Pedro
Notes and images from a collecting visit to a Los Angeles harbour community.
From the field
A harbour with an Italian accent
San Pedro is a working port, and for generations its fishing fleet and canneries drew families from the Italian coast and islands. A collecting visit to the area gave students and volunteers a chance to practise field methods in a place where the traditions were still alive and visible.
The group visited the harbour, spoke with families connected to the fishing trade, and documented a community festival that grew out of those livelihoods. Photographs and recordings from the trip joined the Institute's archive, and several of the interviews became material for later public programs.
What a field trip teaches
- How to approach a community with respect
- How to record in a working environment
- How to photograph people and places without intrusion
- How to connect a local story to a wider history
About the images
The photographs made on Institute field trips were contributed by volunteer photographers and are credited to them in the archive. Images from this visit are held with the collection and may be consulted by arrangement through the archives.