Photographer Pat Darrin Offers a Glimpse of ‘60s Beach Culture at Gallery 169 on June 20

A woman walking on Will Rogers State Beach in the 1960s. Photo: Pat Darrin

By Laurel Busby

News & Information Editor

Pat Darrin has been photographing his world since the early 1960s, when he was a teenager.

In those days, his weekend social life revolved around the beach at the base of Santa Monica Canyon. His family moved from Benedict Canyon to Ocean Way in 1964, but he began shooting pictures of his friends surfing at Will Rogers State Beach before the move.

Then, one day, he turned the camera away from the surfers and took a picture of a woman strolling away from him.

“There was a young lady walking up the beach, and you see the mural behind her,” Darrin said. “That was the first picture that really started me shooting stuff on the beach…. It stood out as the symbolic image of that beach at that time.”

Pat Darrin as a teen. Photo: Pat Darrin

For the next few years, Darrin attended first Palisades High School, from which he graduated in 1965, then CalArts and UCLA, which offered no photography courses at the time. He left both schools to pursue his photography education on his own, but throughout those years, he kept visiting the beach and snapping images of his surfing friends and the local culture.

When the Palisades Fire broke out last year, Darrin reevaluated those photos.

 “As I was choosing what things were important while evacuating our home, my first thought was to take my pictures,” Darrin said. “Later, when I sat down with the boxes of photographs and negatives that I had loaded into my car, I realized that they needed to be shared.”

That realization spurred him to create his upcoming exhibit at Gallery 169 titled The Beach in My Backyard: State Beach in the Sixties, which will be transformed into a book when the show ends. The exhibit will open Saturday, June 20, with an artist reception from 5-8 p.m., and will feature Darrin’s favorite photos from those years.

“These are the pictures that people would be interested in seeing, things that I had fun taking, that amused me or were exactly the kind of thing I would want to convey,” Darrin said. “I didn’t want the show to be only surfing pictures. I wanted it to focus on beach culture.”

During the 1960s and early ‘70s, the culture on the beach was more varied and connected than it is today, Darrin said. One reason for the difference was the layout of the beach, which shifted, due to sand moved by the ocean currents, from a slim strip to a broader beach with less appealing surf. The slimmer beach of the ‘60s meant that varied groups who visited the beach mingled more and formed a cultural blend that included surfers, Hollywood people, families, tourists, and gay beachgoers, who were welcomed at State Beach during a time when other beaches were not as inclusive.

Beachgoers in the 1960s. Photo: Pat Darrin

“When you walked down to the sand, the sand was really narrow,” he said. “People were all shoved in together. It was wonderful. That was part of the charm of it. There was no avoidance. You couldn’t, and there was no problem whatsoever.” After the sand and ocean changed, “we lost the surf. We lost the community. We lost all that. The Canyon doesn’t have the culture and vibrancy that it used to have.”

In the ensuing years, Darrin shaped a photography and cinematography career that included numerous music videos featuring artists such as Britney Spears, Joni Mitchell, The Black Crowes, Bob Dylan, Stevie Nicks, Sheryl Crow, OutKast, Seal, Anita Baker and Ice Cube. He also shot numerous documentaries, such as the 2018 Showtime feature Echo in the Canyon, which chronicled L.A.’s Laurel Canyon music scene in the 1960s and ‘70s.

He also has remained in his childhood home, which he inherited from his parents. These days he continues to make regular trips to the beach. His wife, Christine, who he married in 1994, often accompanies him to enjoy a swim in the ocean while he snaps pictures as photography has remained his lifelong passion.

“I never considered doing anything else,” Darrin said. “I’m having fun. All these characters running around in their skimpy clothes. It’s hysterical.”

(The Beach in My Backyard: State Beach in the Sixties will open on June 20 from 5-8 p.m. at Gallery 169 (169 W. Channel Rd.) and will be available for viewing by appointment through mid-August. Visit gallery169.com or call (310) 963 3891 for more information.)

A kiss on State Beach. Photo: Pat Darrin