1970s photos capture a vanishing LA - Curbed LA
Roger Steffens began taking photographs on the eve of the Tet Offensive, as soldiers descended from the sky. His instinct to start snapping photos grew into one of several life callings for the actor, writer, and archivist. Fifty years later, and after several relocations around central LA, Steffens has collected hundreds of thousands of images of Los Angeles that immortalize ephemeral moments in an ever-evolving city. “I learned what was most important to me in life,” he says of that day in Vietnam, where he served as a staff sergeant with the Army. “I had enough time to run back to my barracks and save what was most important, and it was my slides, my tape recordings, and—I had a...
