I took these images in 2017 at OUE Skyspace LA with my 1970s Zenit camera. OUE Skyspace was an observation deck on the 69th and 70th floors of the U.S. Bank Tower in Downtown Los Angeles, featuring a terrace with panoramic views of the city. In 2020, it permanently closed after a new owner took over the building.
When I finished the roll, I dropped it off at a local film shop for development. A few days later, when I went to pick it up, the shop owner informed me that the film had been damaged—likely exposed to light, though I don’t recall doing so. A long, uneven white stain stretched across the entire roll, almost as if something had been spilled on it. I had a slight suspicion that the damage occurred during development, but I’m not well-versed in the technical aspects of film processing, so perhaps it was a light leak.
When I scanned and inverted the negatives at home, I managed to recover a couple of photographs, which you can see here. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the brand of film I used, but I do know it was black and white.
radio silence
be our guidance
when the sound dies
close your eyes
for the guidance
from the silence
This track was inspired by the images I got from this roll.
The two images above were taken at the observation deck. If you look closely, you can see the outlines of the city’s buildings captured from an aerial view.
This shot comes from the OUE Skyspace cafeteria. The vertical rectangles are the floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the cityscape. The sunlight coming through the windows created rectangular stripes on the floor.
These are just palms.
And this is what the rest of the roll looked like.