Ned Paynter’s Rare Views of Los Angeles Landmarks

One of our favorite genres of photography is architecture shot on slide film by vacationing or itinerant college professors. The images they capture as lecture illustrations aren’t necessarily fine art, but they always present different angles on familiar landmarks. It’s a pleasure to discover and explore a new-to-us collection.

Recently uploaded by the Friends of San Diego Architecture is a large sampling of the 9,791 slides assembled by the late historian Dr. Ned Paynter between 1975 and 2006. He traveled in Europe and throughout America, dug the Art Nouveau, Mission Revival, casino kitsch and Postmodernism, and made a few trips up to Los Angeles to document a pre-gentrification Downtown and some intriguing oddities.

We’re pleased to share a taste of Ned Paynter’s local discoveries, and encourage you to explore the offerings on the Friends of San Diego Architecture site. If you fall in love with something, you can even buy a print. And if you’d like to get to know the opinionated and interesting man who captured these vistas, he blogged until the end of his life.