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The tension between the way the world appears to be and its actuality is represented in an art debate pitting “form vs. content.” But Kenneth Shorr is one artist who has steadfastly refused to take a side in the debate. Looking/Forgetting, 1977, for instance, is a highly formal graphic arrangement of dark verticals on a gray field, reminiscent of photographs by Aaron Siskind or, more to the point, Ray Metzker. But unlike the work of those artists, which relied on metaphor or the charm of design, Shorr’s picture is confrontational, clobbering us with its banality and incongruity—forcing a connection between a lighthearted musical riff and a threatened, emaciated flgure.

Shorr spent but three years in Los Angeles, but they were crucially formative years. He claims that this was not because the art scene was influential. (“For the longest time I thought Francis Bacon lived in Fresno and he certainly had an influence on me,” he says with a typical disregard for candor. “I have no recollection of any art while in LA.” He does, though, admit that Robert Heinecken was “the sole reason I moved to LA.”)

Rather, it was the city of Los Angeles itself that had an impact:

My sense of the city was that it was daily disappearing beneath a sludge of pornography, pollution and horror. And it made me giddy. It seemed to be a place where everything had gone amok ages ago, and people simply marveled that it was still going on. Art seemed like a way of pinching yourself, of telling yourself this really wasn’t a nightmare… Photography is the only way I can nail things down. I don’t think anything is worth doing if you can’t take a picture of it.