In
the spring of 2018 Laguna Wilderness Press published its most recent title, The Laguna Canyon Project: Refining
Artivism. The book provides the first comprehensive photographic and
written history of the movement to preserve Laguna Canyon. Liz Goldner a journalist and art critic based in Laguna Beach,
was among the many important contributors and coordinators for the book. She was
the partner of the late photographer, activist, and founder of the Laguna Canyon
Project Mark Chamberlain from 2003 until his passing in 2018.
Liz
first met Mark in 2003 when she interviewed him about his community activism.
Listening to Mark’s stories about the movement to preserve Laguna Canyon, Liz thought
that writing a book about the project would be an important contribution to the
history of the region. After 15 years of hard work, the book was finally
completed and released in the spring of 2018.
I
recently met Liz at the home she shared with Mark to discuss the Laguna Canyon
project and the process of completing the book. The Laguna Canyon Project was
initially developed by Mark Chamberlain and fellow photographer, Jerry
Burchfield. Liz explained to me that “their initial desire was to photograph
Laguna Canyon and the Laguna Canyon Road and even back in 1980 they were
concerned that it was going to be built over, and it was going to be changed.” After
returning from the Vietnam War, Mark had moved to Laguna Beach in 1969. His
sister, brother-in-law, and their children were already living in California
when he moved to the area. In addition to its idyllic climate and beach-side
setting, Laguna Beach was unique to the region in that it was a progressive
artist community in highly conservative Orange County. However, the profile of
Laguna began to change in the years that followed Mark’s arrival as real estate
developers tried to find new ways to encroach more upon the land.
In response to the encroachment of
capital and real estate development on the area, Mark and Jerry began
organizing to raise awareness and mobilize community members to oppose
development and reach a common purpose of trying to preserve the beauty of the canyon.
Among the projects they developed was “The Tell,” an ambitious collaborative
project of local artists and community members coming together. A huge mosiac of art was built and the term artivism was coined to
describe what was taking place.
In addition to “The Tell,” “The Walk” of 1989 was the key event mobilizing
the community against a new development project headed by billionaire and sole
owner of the Irvine Corporation, Donald Bren. Thousands of people joined
together to march from the Tell to mobilize in support of the Laguna Canyon and
against a development project that would have destroyed much of the nature in
the area. The gains of this collective action were monumental as it resulted in
Donald Bren’s development project being cancelled. As Liz describes it, “Developers
are always coming in and trying to do things, but they’re pretty minimal
compared to what Donald Bren was going to do.” In spite of some developers continuing
to acquire land and build new projects near Laguna Canyon, it is still nowhere near
the scale of what Bren and the Irvine Corporation had been planning. As Liz
described it, “there was a part of the Canyon that wasn’t developed back then
that is not in Laguna Beach. So they built a luxurious community called Laguna
Altura and it’s near Laguna Canyon Road. It’s way smaller than anything Donald
Bren would ever build. It’s just homes. Bren was going to build shopping
centers and golf courses.” Nonprofit organizations such as the Laguna Canyon
Conservancy are still in existence working to preserve the beauty of the Canyon
for generations to come, but continuing grassroots organizing around
environmental issues and paying close attention to the history of the region is
extremely important.
Liz Goldner was living on the East Coast during
the heyday of The Walk and The Tell, but she has since become an expert on the
history of the canyon through long conversations with Mark. “The more I heard
about it, the more I thought that there should be a book about it,” she says as
she recalls the process of writing and editing the book in her and Mark’s home
in Laguna Beach. “When Ron [Chilcote]
created Laguna Wilderness Press with Jerry Birchfield that was one of their
first goals, and it just never happened. Ron gave Mark the go-ahead a little
over six years ago.” In 2013, Liz became the project manager of the book and
got people who had been involved with the Laguna Canyon Project and the
building of The Tell to contribute essays. Unfortunately Jerry passed away
before the book was complete, but one of his reflection essays was included posthumously.
Mark wrote the book’s main essay and provided many of the photographs, while
Liz wrote the preface and edited much of the book’s text.
Liz recalled the considerable amount of work
that went into putting together the book and how at times it became quite a
struggle. Jokingly she told me that she and Mark almost “killed each other” out
of frustration to complete the project. Luckily, their hard work paid off as we
are left with an incredible book that describes this important history in rich
detail and images. As Liz described it, “Mark believed that this would remain
virgin land for all of perpetuity” and his activism to preserve the Laguna
Canyon was to ensure that the land would remain as it has always been. Detailing
the history of Mark and others’ fight to preserve this land, the Laguna Canyon Project serves as a
testament and attempt to preserve this important history for future
generations.
The Laguna
Canyon Project: “Refining Artivism” by Mark Chamberlain is available for purchase here
https://lagunawildernesspress.com/product/the-laguna-canyon-project/
No comments:
Post a Comment