Golden Palms is a collection of Ed Panar’s photographs of Los Angeles, where he lived for two years without a car. The cumulative effect is a subtly hilarious and beautiful walking tour through generic back streets, showing us a side of contemporary LA that most people speed by. Includes an interview with Ed and Charlotte Cotton.

interview with Charlotte Cotton

Ed Panar is a recent graduate of the MFA program at Cranbrook Academy of Art. In addition to his straight photography, Panar creates video art and poetry as his guardian angel alter-ego, Johnny B. Smooth, with collaborator the B. Dazzler. He has also edited projects for the London based Tomato Workshops. Golden Palms is one piece of the jigsaw puzzle that is Ed Panar. Taken in the context of Panar’s various other artistic endeavors, Golden Palms reveals an educated eye with a sensitivity to personality and humor. Ed received a 2007 fellowship from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. A Pennsylvania native, Ed lives and works in Pittsburgh.

Charlotte Cotton is curator of photography at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and author of The Photograph as Contemporary Art. Previously, she was head of programming at The Photographers' Gallery in London, and a curator of photographs at the Victoria and Albert Museum.