firstyearphoto – Page 3 – The Waiting Room Project

On a Chinatown Street

Chinatown, Los Angeles. June 2013

One fine June day in 2013, we were downtown on our regular monthly run for dim sum and tea. Empress Pavilion was long gone, we had lunched at Ocean Seafood. They have the best selection of chicken and vegetarian dumplings in town, and since we don’t eat pork, it had become our favorite. Next door to Ocean Seafood is the Wing Hop Fung market. Two floors of Chinese foods, liquor, herbs, housewares, beauty supplies and tea. We go for the tea. Hundreds of varieties in tall cylindrical jars with heavy glass lids. Black tea, green tea, white tea, Oolong, herbal tea of every variety you can imagine, expensive Pu-erh tea in large black cakes, beautiful tea blossoms that bloom in your teapot. We discovered a particular Oolong we favor years ago, Wudong Phoenix Honey Orchid Oolong, and stocked up. It is somewhat expensive, but delicious and you can only get it at WHF. Once back in the car, we were heading south on Hill street when I spied this “procession” of people. Not exactly a procession as they weren’t going anywhere. We couldn’t figure out if there was a leader, couldn’t really get a handle on what was going on. We didn’t know what they were waiting for, not at a bus stop, but they were clearly waiting for something. We pulled over and I shot several pictures and this little triptych seemed to capture the mood on the street.

Quality Tire and Brake

Automotive

Quality Tire, Culver City. May 2013

Quality Tire, Culver City. August 2014

Finding a good auto mechanic is a blessing. We discovered Isaac at Quality Tire in Culver City through our synagogue, The Marina Shul. He is Israeli, a fast talker and honest. He doesn’t actually do the work, but he has a couple of great mechanics who know their stuff. He has been servicing our autos for more than five years now, and always gives us a fair price and stands by his work. The irony is that he doesn’t sell many tires in spite of the name. Nearby Costco has a better selection and cheaper, and in fact, he usually recommends his customers go there. He’ll do the alignment once your car has its new shoes.

There is a curious bleakness about all automotive service waiting areas, and Isaac’s is no exception. It is unique in that is it an expression of his personality, with posters of Marilyn Monroe, Albert Einstein, Clint Eastwood, and the Beatles adorning the walls, and stacks of National Geographic, Rolling Stone, and Business magazines piled on the credenza. The TV is always tuned to an Israeli news station, an old movie or a soccer game. The couches are vastly uncomfortable, but if I come at lunch time, he will order a Pitfire pizza and a salad for me from across the street. Come on Friday afternoon, and there might be a little shot of tequila or arak on offer. He is within walking distance from my house, and I have made the trip on foot many times, although he will drive me home if I wish. All in all, a very satisfactory place to take our cars to be fixed.

A Symmetry of Chairs

Doctor's Office, Waiting for Jake

Waiting_select_053 — Doctor’s Office, Pacific Palisades. May 2013

This is the waiting room of the doctor who Jake was seeing, down the hall from the previous post. Aside from my new-found preoccupation with waiting rooms, the absolute symmetry of this room demanded a photo. Since I was the only one in the room, I had the luxury of taking several pictures until I achieved the perfect framing. The room was brightly lit and the chairs were uncomfortable. I guess this doctor had better time management so his patients wouldn’t have to wait too long. Good thing. They were so uncomfortable, I got up and wandered the halls discovering the photo in the previous post. They could go as a set, I suppose.

Pediatrician’s Office

Doctor's Office, Waiting for Jake

Waiting_select_052 — Doctor’s Office, Pacific Palisades. May 2013

Waiting with children poses unique challenges. As a rule, they don’t really want to wait for anything; their mantra is usually ‘now’. Most certainly they don’t want to wait for the doctor who may poke them and prod them, put a flat piece of wood in their mouths and make them say “aaahh”, or even worse, stick them with a sharp needle. This well-mannered office provides a child-sized table with some reading material and some games to keep the kiddies occupied. While Jake was in with a new doctor in the office down the hall, I kept myself busy checking out all the other offices in the building. This one was right next door, and seemed worthy of a photo.

Walk-ins Welcome

People Waiting, Personal Service

Waiting_select_050 — Barber Shop, Venice. June 2013

Lincoln Blvd. is a street that could be anywhere. A strip of fast food restaurants, psychics, cheap motels, and liquor stores, it is replicated endlessly across the country. My particular slice of this uniquely American landscape runs from Venice Blvd. to Washington Blvd. All of the above are within a few blocks as well as a veterinarian, an art supply store, car wash, shoe repair, pawn shop, day care, bicycle shop, a couple of used car lots, nail salons, gas station, 7-11 strip mall, legal document service (wills, divorces, incorporations), beauty supply, car rental, Jewish synagogue, Catholic church, Chinese fast food, Thai restaurant, Italian restaurant, Indian restaurant, gluten-free bakery, donut shop, drug store, payday check cashing, wireless telephones, a post office box business, sewing machine and vacuum repair, Thai massage, mixed martial arts studio, car stereo, smog check, locksmith, tattoo parlor, and a marijuana dispensary; truly a cross-section of our culture. And a barbershop.

The Open Door

Doctor's Office, People Waiting

Waiting #76 — Surgery Center, Santa Monica. June 2013

By now, I was on the lookout for waiting rooms, waiting benches, waiting stools, waiting lines, any place that had been designated, however vaguely, as a “waiting area”, my iPhone at the ready. I had it pre-set to one of the black and white combinations that I was using. Often these photos were taken surreptitiously, no more than a quick glance at the screen and a touch of the shutter button. Many times I would only take one photo. Sometimes I had the luxury of several, choosing the best when I had the leisure to look at them on the large screen of my computer. After my initial appointment with the oral surgeon of the last post, I was walking down the hallway toward the elevator when I passed this doorway and was immediately captivated by the image. I wondered what the woman was doing. Was she talking to someone? Was she getting something out of her purse on the chair next to her? Was she a patient or was she waiting for someone else? As I didn’t want to be discovered taking pictures, I snapped this one photo; I didn’t linger to peer in to answer the questions. I preferred to leave them unanswered to be asked and answered by the viewer.

The Whole Tooth

Doctor's Office, People Waiting

Dentist Office, Santa Monica. June 2013

Oral Surgeon, Santa Monica. June 2013

In June, we celebrated my wife’s birthday at a very upscale restaurant in Santa Monica with my mother and Jake. At the beginning of the meal, I bit into a piece of olive bread and a pit hidden inside cracked one of my teeth. It was the beginning of a two-year adventure attempting to get compensation for the damage, a story for another time. The very next day, I visited my dentist (the photo on the left) for an evaluation, and waited in one of those chairs. He determined that the damage was so extensive I needed the tooth extracted and an implant put in. He referred me to an oral surgeon (the photo on the right) and I had the surgery a few days later. Six months later I had a titanium insert screwed into my jaw and a shiny new crown. Note how many more patients the surgeon anticipates than the dentist. This is one of the first pictures that has another person in the shot. I also took a photo of the empty room, and the presence of the person lends a different import, so I amended my “rules” to include rooms occupied and unoccupied.

USC in Beverly Hills

Doctor's Office, Waiting for Jake

USC Medical Office, Beverly Hills. March 2013

USC Medical Office, Beverly Hills. May 2013

This is the waiting room of the doctor who performed the spinal injections for Jake. The actual procedure happened at the downtown hospital, but we went to visit the doc here in the fashionable USC medical building on Wilshire in Beverly Hills. Or rather on the edge of Los Angeles that abuts Beverly Hills. Two views of the same office, one looking east one looking west. The left-hand photo is the east view, with the large window on the right. It was part of the group of the first photos as I was finding my way with the concept. I particularly liked the light and the ‘living room’ feel of this area. The frosted glass door in the right-hand west view photo led into the offices proper. What was unusual is that every time we visited there was never anyone else in the waiting room.

Back to UCLA

Doctor's Office, Waiting for Jake

Waiting_select_034 — UCLA Medical Office, Santa Monica. May 2013

This is the waiting room at the UCLA Santa Monica medical center pictured in the 12 Chairs post. This room was so large, it had 4 or 5 different areas with different decors and furnishings in the same room. There was something about the shapes and arrangement of these chairs that inspired me to shoot a second photo of the same room two months apart. There was an area with a coffee and tea maker, microwave oven, and a soda machine; I guess the powers that be at UCLA knew you might have to camp out for a while when they set up the room. At other times when we visited, there were families with children picnicking at the tables, people working on computers, doing their homework, a regular mecca of activity. This was in the “empty room” phase so I had to work to get a picture without people. We would visit a few more times before Jake decided to abandon the UCLA system in favor of USC. As a former Bruin UES elementary student, I was aghast, but he preferred the doctor.

Union Station Gallery

People Waiting, Travel

Union Station, Los Angeles. May 2013

The rest of the photos from the Union Station day. This is the only time I went to a place specifically to shoot for the project. I could have spent all day there, each photo tells its own story, each person is there waiting for something or someone. The picture of the bride isn’t exactly about waiting, but the image was so compelling I had to include it.