OCEAN BEACH, CA. There was a great turn-out Friday night for the OB Historical Society’s Photo Exposed contest and exhibit. Held in the Masonic Temple on Sunset Cliffs Blvd, the event swelled to 150 people as the crowd mingled among the wonderful black and white and color photos, catered meatballs, pizza, plus donated and catered desserts.
People's Choice: Emily Sales - "OB Pier" - photo: Patty Jones
MC’ed by Society prez Pat James, the night culminated in the announcement of the winners – and in a surprise monetary donation to the Historical Society.
The People’s Choice award went to Emily Sales for her “OB Pier.” Here it is:
OB Pier - Emily Sales
Best Special Effects: Kathy Blavatt - "Sunset"; photo - Patty Jones
Here are the six winners and their photos (we are in the process of requesting the winners allow us to post their photos – those who have responded have their photos up):
Best Special Effects: Kathy Blavatt – “Sunset”
Best Color: Bryce Johnson – “Cliffhanger”
Best Black & White: Richard Micheau – Cliff and Pier NW Swell high tide
Best Vintage: John Ayers – “Girls Gone Wild”
Best In Show: Joe Ewing – “Surfer”
People’s Choice: Emily Sales – “OB Pier”
Best Color: Bryce Johnson - "Cliffhanger" - what you possibly cannot see is a small spider hanging off the lower left corner of the blue sign. photo - Patty Jones
During the announcing of the winners, some words were spoken of Society friend Maddie Dibble who had recently passed away. Her adult children, Judy and David both also made kind and humorous remarks about their mom. And then it was announced that the Dibble family was donating $2500 to the OB Historical Society.
The show winners will be hung in the OB Library for a month. Then if artists approve be donated to the Ocean Beach Historical Society Archives.
Steve Rowell, a well-known OB photographer, had a series of his old black and white pics on display. Many of them depiced OB street scenes in the heyday of the hippie and youth culture. Steve had worked on OB’s first “underground newspaper” – the OB Liberator.
Best Color: Bryce Johnson - "Cliffhanger"
Best Special Effects: Kathy Blavatt - "Sunset"
The Society had a table full of their T-shirts, old potos for sale, and a couple of their little books about OB that they’ve published over the years. Go to the OB Historical Society for more info here.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
I sooo glad you mentioned the meatballz….
I would love to have a calendar of Ocean Beach photos. The historical society could have a bit of income from such an item. I know of many merchants who would distribute these calendars. I would suggest the OB Merchants Association as well as the other OB community organizations help with the advertizing on their web sites. It may be wise for the Historical Societies board of directors to put this idea on their next agenda. Just a thought.
It was good to see you there. I liked Steve’s historical hippie day pix. My grandma used to live at 5040 Narragansett back then. It was quite the location for a young, innocent child, such as I, to see some wild and interesting people and things.
I hope your article brings more entries to next year’s photo contest.
AND I think the calendar would be a great idea! My mom’s on the OBHS, I’ll see what she can find out.
So bummed I missed this event while on vacation. Is there any place I can see all the winning photos? Or even some of those that did not win as I’m sure they were all really good.
Jon – welcome back. Gee, I know it’s tough to return from Hawaii to our little seaside resort.
According to the OB Historical Society, all the winning photos will be hung at the OB Library. Not sure of the dates…
Mahalo Frank. Hawaii was great, but there’s no place like home! I will look forward to checking out the photos at the library!
There was once an OB calendar, back around 1975, funky and beautiful . . . Frank didn’t you work on it? . . . I think I have one upstairs in my OB box . . . with the kind of local organization support and merchant support Gary suggests and the kind of talent available, it could be one beauty of a calendar . . . I’d buy it even though I live 12 hours away . . .
Hey everyone – check out the new winning photo we just posted – Bryce Johnson’s Best Color – from the OB Historical Society’s Photo Exposed.
Dickie – Yeah, I edited and published it – and I have it right here.