Fred Lonidier

Michael Benevento is pleased to present Fred Lonidier and his original version of Vacation Village Trade Show from 1972 in which he documents photographic sessions featuring models posing in the Mission Bay public gardens, arranged for amateur photographers with an entrance fee of $20. This, together with the advertising of the time, highlighted the predominance of men in advertisements for camera and photographic lens manufacturers. Vacation Village Trade Show made its debut in 1972 at the University of California, San Diego, as a collaborative effort involving two faculty members and students; Steve Buck, Louise Kirtland, Fred Lonidier, Allan Sekula, Phil Steinmetz, Barbara Greenlee, and Ruth Krimmel.

This show came about in a rather hurry as Phel Steinmetz showed a number of us the flyer "Beautiful Models" inviting photographers to come and "Spend the Day Shooting" them! Those of us interested in documenting such a thing did not have time to meet and discuss how we would approach nor display the event. So, our photography was not really a collaboration until we got back and discussed how to display our photos and other features of a show. Steinmetz and I went down together and split up to do our thing. Steve Buck, Louise Kirkland and Allan Sekula all went down on their own as I recall. Also, Barbara Greenlee and Ruth Krimmel went down and interviewed a couple of the young models. Then we met and Sekula offered to write a page which was displayed multiple times on the wall: "Analysis" at top and bottom. He also made the rhetorical strips mounted above the panels.

We decided to display our photos as giant proof sheets which we made by enlarging four frames at a time in 4" by 5" enlargers. This was our Conceptual Art push against the traditions of art documentary and photo journalism. In discussions and readings, we were all exploring on our own what new photo documentary would look like. At the center were commitments to photo/text and multiple photos: installation work. So, we scheduled a time in the department's student gallery and hung the work and text. We also had the model interviews on a loop which played continuously during the show. And I put up bunch of camera and photo workshop ads from a huge pile of photo magazines which Steinmetz had accumulated over some years.

We all took our own panels after the show, at least I thought so. But, years later, I found that I had ended up with them all. I returned Steinmetz's panels to him and Sekula's to Sally Stein as well as the "Analysis.." It was years too late to track down Buck and Kirkland. Sally later told me that Allan became uncomfortable with show and did not want his work shown again. My thinking later was that he was uncomfortable with a show which appeared to be a collaboration but really was not. However, I like my panels and have showed them before and here.