Taking a leap of faith

Suzie Harrison

A sightseeing excursion with a view of the Empire State Building, the

Louvre and Yosemite at a palatable cost is not only possible,

tourists don’t even have to break a sweat to do it.

The visual journey is brought to the viewer through the lens of

local photographer Ed Olen. His pictures capture such great detail

and original access to these great places that it makes one feel as

if they are there, sans the jet lag.

In his work, as in his life, the decision to become a full-time

artist wasn’t necessarily black and white for this grocery store

employee. Rather, what started as a diversion steadily gained

momentum, as he continued working to put himself through college.

“I was working at Lucky’s back in ‘94, which became Albertsons,

and going to school,” Olen said. “When I first started Saddleback, I

started with photography as a course to keep my mind off the major

course work.”

He started going to UCLA to study English literature while

commuting from Laguna. Still, he stayed with his photography classes

at the community college.

“I stayed down here, never moved up to L.A. and worked at the

grocery store,” Olen said. “Finally, after school -- I was working so

much to support myself through school -- I went on a vacation with a

friend to New York and that’s when I started photographing cities.”

From that trip, he had his first show, exhibiting his New York

work in Jan. 2002 at the Different Drummer Bookstore.

“I was having shows here and there at Madison Square Garden and

Cafe for the second anniversary of art walk and some at Zinc Cafe

here and in Solana,” Olen said.

Gallery owner Peter Blake was impressed with Olen’s style.

“Ed’s a great guy, I love someone that takes a leap of faith like

he did, leaving his job and going into the gallery business. He did

the first photograph I ever purchased, it’s of the World Trade

Center. The shot is amazing.”

While still at the grocery store, right after 9/11, Olen said he donated a photo he had taken of the towers to help out the Red Cross.

“Anyone that donated $150 to the Red Cross through Albertson’s got

one, and it raised over $2,000,” Olen said.

Olen had his sights set on opening a gallery in Laguna and leaving

his days at the grocery store behind. His wish came to fruition when

he opened the doors in June 2002 at his location on South Coast

Highway.

“I was freaked out, going from a job that had a steady income,

benefits and security to just kind of being at the mercy of the

public and the tourists,” Olen said.

The first year was really good, while last year, the gallery saw

tougher times. Exhibiting at the Festival of Arts and the Sawdust Art

Festival paid the bills.

“Most people said that this year [2003] was one of their worst

years [exhibiting], but I feel I did a really good job for my first

year,” Olen said. “I was running around between the Sawdust in the

morning, the gallery in the afternoon and the Festival of Arts at

night.”

He said it was hard to predict when a sale would be made.

Sometimes it was sunny and packed and other times, it was rainy with

a few people around. But he really enjoyed every minute of it.

New York and Paris are Olen’s favorite cities to photograph,

though he has been to many places both here and abroad.

“New York -- there’s just so much culture for an American city,”

Olen said. “New York has the Flatiron Building, the Empire State

Building, the Chrysler Building. I’ve been to New York many times and

have been going about once or twice a year.”

Olen said he doesn’t keep photographing the same images, but some

need to be revisited.

“Certain photos I feel I’ve done, I don’t need to go back -- while

others if I feel I didn’t quite capture it -- like the Brooklyn

Bridge,” Olen said. “I’ve photographed it but I haven’t gotten it as

exactly as I’d like to. So, I would like to figure out how.”

He said he is happy with his shots of the Statue of Liberty and

the World Trade Center, which he photographed in 1999.

“I didn’t photograph it so much on subsequent trips because I

captured it the way I needed to or wanted to,” Olen said.

Olen has an affinity for Paris because he loves all the detail.

“To go to a city with such art, parks, statues ... buildings are so

ornate,” Olen said. “I felt like I was on the back lot of Universal

Studios, thinking you’re going to look behind the building and

there’s going to be a facade.”

When he first got to Paris, the first place he took his camera was

the Louvre. There he began photographing some of Michelangelo’s

statues.

“I was looking at the statues and started thinking what made my

photography different from a typical tourist,” Olen said. “That’s

when I started cropping in close and focusing in on certain features

or ornateness of a statue, or details of the feet or a hand, as

opposed to just the statue as a whole.”

He started using cropping, depth of field and motion to try to get

people to look at a familiar object in a different way. He said it

helps being from Southern California so when he got to New York,

Paris or some of the other places he got to go and see things with a

fresh eye, a new and different way. In contrast, he said he has a

more difficult time photographing Laguna because he sees it on a

daily basis.

Las Vegas is a spot he enjoys too, things are constantly changing

and he likes to capture the seedy underbelly and people watch. He

also enjoyed his venture to Yosemite. While other landscapes didn’t

seem to turn out, he had success there.

“Yosemite -- I almost like the photo of Half Dome, El Capitan.

Looking up 3,000 feet is even more awe inspiring than a skyscraper

because it was formed naturally,” Olen said.

But he is hard pressed to say which piece is his favorite.

“It’s hard to say a favorite of all, I think I have a favorite in

each city,” Olen said. “Sometimes I go through a period when one is

my favorite and then another one becomes my favorite.”

Olen looks forward to traveling to San Francisco, New York, Paris,

London and Spain to see all the greatness through the lens of his

camera.

The Ed Olen Studio is at 1400 S. Coast Highway, Suite 101. For

information, call (949) 376-4977.