Michael Hyatt:
Crossroads: The Streets & Music of Los Angeles 1969 - 1981

Exhibition Dates: February 11 – March 30, 2023.

Book Signing and Opening Reception: February 11, 2023, 7:00-10:00 P.M. at the Andrew Smith Gallery Arizona, LLC, 330 S. Convent Ave., Tucson, AZ 85701

Andrew Smith Gallery Arizona, LLC at 330 S. Convent Ave., Tucson, AZ 85701 is pleased to announce the exhibition Crossroads -The Streets and Music of Los Angeles 1969 – 1981 by Tucson photographer Michael Hyatt. The opening reception is Saturday, February 11, 2023, 7:00-10:00 P.M., and Michael will be present and signing his newest publication: FIFTH and WALL STREET, Skid Row, Los Angeles in the
1970s.

Leonard Graham Crossing Fifth Street – Los Angeles, 1975 ©Michael Hyatt

X – Los Angeles, 1981 ©Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt (b. Long Beach CA, 1946) has been a staple of the photography, radio, and music scenes in Tucson for nearly 40 years, particularly known for his long-running radio program Route 66 on KXCI and his recent photographic work of migrants and the border.

The Andrew Smith Gallery show will have Hyatt’s street photography of L.A. and its environs, focusing on photographs made in L.A.’s legendary Skid Row, and portraits of musicians in the burgeoning punk, new wave, and roots rock scenes happening in L.A. in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s.

Hooker and Jaguar – Fifth & Wall Street, Los Angeles, 1978 ©Michael Hyatt

Skid Row in Los Angeles has a nearly 100-year history of being home to a large and stable population of homeless people and is also known as a successful laboratory for building low-income housing and other social programs to help achieve solutions for many of its homeless residents. In the 1970s Hyatt was drawn to photograph there as he followed some of the footsteps of his alcoholic grandfather who was a frequent visitor to Skid Row in downtown L.A. near Fifth & Wall Street.

Gospel Singers – Fifth & Wall Street, Los Angeles, 1975 ©Michael Hyatt

He turned his compassionate eye on the streets, residents, and transients in, and nearby, the Chapman Hotel at the corner of 5th & Wall Street in Los Angeles. Also featured will be Hyatt’s masterly documentary photographs of L.A.’s street culture. Humanistic documents of protests, colorful characters, and views of city life show a keen eye for capturing moments and composition. To round out the exhibition we will have a small selection of Michael’s portraits of musicians in the punk, new wave, and roots rock scenes that made L.A. a hub of popular culture at this time.

Almar Café – Fifth & Wall Street, Los Angeles, 1979
©Michael Hyatt

“In 1979, I spent a month photographing in Ireland. While there I met the all-female Irish punk rock band, The Boy Scouts, which inspired me to pursue the Los Angeles music scene. Within a month of my return, I began documenting the performances and backstage activities of the prominent punk rock and roots rock bands of the era, including The Plugz, X, The Blasters, and Los Lobos. The fascinating and visually stimulating audience for this music was also documented in Los Angeles and during two national tours with X.”

The B52s – Hollywood, 1979 ©Michael Hyatt

Exene Cervenka – Los Angeles, 1981 ©Michael Hyatt

The Plugz, Olympic Auditorium – Los Angeles, 1980 ©Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt has had a long and varied career in photography and has published several photography books, including Along the Migrant Trail: A Borderland Portrait, Organ Pipe: Life on the Edge, Beyond and Back: The Story of X, among many others. His most recent, Fifth and Wall Street: Skid Row, Los Angeles in the 1970s published in a limited edition of 100, will be available for purchase and signing at the opening.

Steve Berlin – Los Angeles, 1981 ©Michael Hyatt

Chapman Hotel Lobby – Fifth & Wall Street, Los Angeles, 1979
©Michael Hyatt

Café, Mission, Bar, Blood Bank – Fifth & Wall Street, Los Angeles, 1972
©Michael Hyatt

Gumby & Mona – Chapman Hotel – Fifth & Wall Street, Los Angeles, 1979
©Michael Hyatt

Michael Hyatt: Crossroads: The Streets & Music of Los Angeles 1969 - 1981

Michael Hyatt:
Crossroads: The Streets & Music of Los Angeles 1969 - 1981