By RANDY YOUNG Special to the Palisadian-Post While working on chronicling the history of Santa Monica Canyon, I always was aware of this great scholar of California Cool, Martin ‘Marty’ Sugarman. His H2O Magazine has set the standard for highlighting the state’s beach culture and spotlighting the surfer lifestyle. For the past two decades, he has also painted his beloved Pacific Ocean from the vantage point of a man who has lived most of his life close to the beach, including in Santa Monica Canyon and on a sailboat in Marina del Rey. Many of these paintings are on display in Sugarman’s current show, ‘Between the Tides: War and Peace’ at g169 on West Channel Road, an exhibition that showcases yet another side of the man: documenting war-torn areas around the world through his photography. The photos are classic documentary-style stills, referential to the work of W. Eugene Smith and Henri Cartier-Bresson. The entire frame of the 35mm camera is used, and the feel of the images is right out of Life magazine. The journey began in the early 1990s when Sugarman traveled to Mexico and took pictures to illuminate the plight of the rural poor. This set off a whirlwind of adventure including a stint in Cuba photographing the effects of communism and the American embargo. This trip culminated in ‘Storm Over Cuba,’ a book published in 1995. In 1992, Sugarman joined the ranks of war photographer when he shot the huge battle raging in Bosnia and Croatia. This series, published in 1993 as ‘God Be with You: War in Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina,’ led to his covering the conflict in Kashmir, resulting in the publication ‘Kashmir: Paradise Lost.’ Later, he landed in Pakistan, where he documented the battle in the Hindu Kush Mountains at 23,000 feet and produced ‘War Above the Clouds: Saichen Glacier.’ ‘Speak Palestine, Speak Again’ is yet another volume of Sugarman’s photo essays. Sugarman’s life reads like a Graham Greene spy novel, the title of which could be ‘Surfer Dude, Man of Mystery.’ One of the photos in Sugarman’s current exhibition features an old decrepit structure in Mexico with streams of dark stains flowing down the whitewashed walls. The frame creates an Escher-esque type illusion, looking as though it is actually an artist’s rendering. The Cuban series presents the Cuban people, stuck in a time warp of the 1950s. Sugarman has captured the families and particularly the children as full of life. There’s a compelling portrait of five kids, all lined up and so excited about being photographed, along with the picture of a proud gentleman driving his friends around in a shiny restored 1950’s classic. Another image is of two soldiers in Bosnia smoking a cigarette at a checkpoint. The camera angle is low, giving the guns an odd graphic composition. This print is juxtaposed with happy images of kids playing and laughing. These untouched photos honestly mirror the everydayness of the community. There are no shells exploding, just the populace picking up the pieces after the battle. Sugarman is a wonderful Santa Monica Canyon eccentric whom I now respect not just for his surfing prowess, but also for his humanity. Contact: g169 Gallery, (310) 459-4481, or visit www.gallery169.com.
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