Inna Ray shot 12,000 frames of street photography in Los Angeles between 1973 and 1988. Locations include Hollywood, Silverlake, Venice Beach, Downtown Los Angeles, Immaculate Heart College and the San Gabriel Valley.
Inna Ray (1949-2020) was deeply influenced by the philosophy of Sister Corita Kent and her experiences at Immaculate Heart College. From her earliest work as a photographer and poet in Los Angeles through her late-in-life paintings of California’s Eastern Sierra, the California landscape was her muse and subject. She saw nature not as backdrop, but as a living being interconnected with humanity, experiencing cycles of renewal and destruction by fire, flood, and drought. In her later work, she increasingly drew a connection between violence done to the environment and to female bodies. This talk trace sthe evolution of Ray's work through her literary papers, paintings, and artist's journals held by the Huntington Library.
Interview with Inna Ray during her 2014 exhibition “Sequestered Waters” at the Maturango Museum in Ridgecrest, California.