{"id":2444,"date":"2024-12-20T12:05:10","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T20:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/?p=2444"},"modified":"2025-01-08T15:41:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-08T23:41:22","slug":"elusive-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/magazine\/elusive-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Elusive Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Elusive Magic<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n
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\n\n \n The unique qualities of California light have inspired generations of writers, artists, photographers and filmmakers.\n\n\n<\/div>\n <\/div>\n \n By<\/span>Susan Bell<\/strong>\n \n December 20, 2024<\/span>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
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Long after Los Angeles-born writer Lawrence Weschler moved from his California hometown to the East Coast, he wrote a 1998 essay for The New Yorker<\/em> about an aspect of his native state that he missed so deeply it brought tears to his eyes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat light: the late afternoon light of Los Angeles \u2014 golden pink off the bay through the smog and onto the palm fronds. A light I\u2019ve found myself pining for every day of the nearly two decades since I left Southern California,\u201d he wrote in his essay, \u201cL.A. Glows<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hazy, rose-tinted sunsets, honeyed sunbeams splashing onto swimming pools and glinting off the chrome of a million cars \u2014 Southern California\u2019s distinctive light has long entranced artists, photographers, writers and filmmakers. But what makes it so inspirational?<\/p>\n

Unexpected Ingredient<\/h2>\n

Along with the climate and the ring of mountains surrounding the Los Angeles Basin, another \u2014 much less loved but no less legendary \u2014 aspect of the region contributes to the beauty and unique qualities of the region\u2019s light: smog.<\/p>\n

\u201cSouthern California\u2019s low morning clouds eventually burn off, but a layer of haze remains, so that even the early afternoon sun is less harsh,\u201d explains Vah\u00e9 Peroomian<\/a>, professor (teaching) of physics and astronomy<\/a>. \u201cAdd to this a pinch of smog trapped between the mountains and the ocean, and the light acquires a golden hue long before the sun nears the horizon.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further north, California\u2019s Eastern Sierra is renowned for its morning alpenglow. The rare rosy light isn\u2019t unique to the Sierra, but, as Peroomian says, nowhere else will you find a string of jagged, snowcapped peaks hundreds of miles long that\u2019s perfectly aligned to receive the morning sun.<\/p>\n

Visual Inspiration<\/h2>\n

For artists, the state\u2019s natural beauty and changing atmospheric effects provide a ready-made site of experimentation and appealing technical challenges, notes Suzanne Hudson<\/a>, professor of art history<\/a> and fine arts.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s something about the brightness of the light here and the way it bounces off features of the California landscape, whether that\u2019s the ocean or snow in the High Sierra,\u201d she says. \u201cThe light reaches such a feverish intensity through the day that it becomes almost a sensory experience \u2014 and artists want to capture that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Among the many artists inspired by California light, two that stand out are British-born David Hockney, whose light-dappled paintings capture sunlight reflected in rippling L.A. swimming pools, and California native James Turrell, a leading figure of the Light and Space movement. Known as the \u201cMaster of Light,\u201d Turrell uses buildings almost as apertures to frame ever-shifting natural light, contrasting permanence and transience.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s light and shadow remain a major inspiration for photographers. Past masters include Ansel Adams, who captured the state\u2019s natural beauty, and Julius Shulman, whose celebrated photographs of California\u2019s iconic modernist architecture are masterful portraits of cities, nightscapes and reflections.<\/p>\n

And \u2014 of course \u2014 the qualities of Southern California light, when combined with the region\u2019s endless sunshine, were a major draw for filmmakers, helping to establish the movie powerhouse that became Hollywood.<\/p>\n

Light and Shadow<\/h2>\n

Weschler isn\u2019t the only writer with strong California ties to be fascinated by the distinctive qualities of the Golden State\u2019s light: Jack Kerouac, John Fante and Raymond Chandler are among the literary heavyweights who incorporate descriptions of California\u2019s light in their work, notes David Ulin<\/a>, professor of the practice of English<\/a>.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s Noir, a genre of which L.A. is the world\u2019s undisputed capital. Noir presents the flip side of L.A.\u2019s reputation as a sun-drenched paradise, says University Professor Emeritus Leo Braudy<\/a>, Professor Emeritus of English and Art History, casting it instead as a menacing city of shadow. Why would a genre named after the absence of light proliferate in a place associated so strongly with bright sunshine?<\/p>\n

\u201cThink about it,\u201d Braudy says. \u201cWithout sunshine there would be no shadow. We need both to express the contradictions of the place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ultimately, it\u2019s this interplay between light and shadow that defines California\u2019s elusive magic \u2014 a place where contradictions thrive and where beauty and menace coexist in the same frame. From smog-filtered sunsets to snowcapped peaks bathed in the rosy hues of alpenglow, the light here doesn\u2019t just illuminate, it transforms, creating a landscape as varied and complex as the stories it inspires.\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n \n \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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\n California Beauty More than Meets the Eye?\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Understanding the state\u2019s powerful association with beauty offers profound insights into its history, evolution and global reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n

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\n USC Dornsife Magazine\n <\/h2>\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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Fall 2024 \/ Winter 2025<\/h2>\n

California<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n \n \n
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