Remember Going to Sears for Family Photos?

Why Self Help Graphics Brought Pop-Up Portraits to L.A.’s Eastside

Three years ago, when the nonprofit visual arts center Self Help Graphics and Arts was moving from East Los Angeles back to its historical home neighborhood of Los Angeles’ Boyle Heights, staff members discovered a box of old photographs. The black-and-white images were a kind of time capsule of the late 1970s and early 1980s, during the early days of the art center. In portraits and street scenes, the photos preserved the way people in the neighborhood wore their hair, styled their clothes, and smiled.

Inspired by that find, Self Help …