Spring 2009, Volume 6

Photography by Tom M. Johnson

In the late 1940s and early 50s, many World War II veterans and their families were looking for a new start. Lakewood, a suburban city in the southeast corner of Los Angeles County, offered them that beginning. The founders of Lakewood gave their city the motto, "Tomorrow's City Today," because it was unique and modern in its conception. Lakewood offered a utopia for the post-war middle class: affordable housing, new schools and parks, good jobs in the nearby developing aerospace-defense industry, and an entirely new commercial concept in the middle of the city—the shopping mall. Then the nineties came; the aerospace-defense industry abandoned California, and what made tomorrow's city today had become yesterday. Yet, Lakewood continues to endure, and today it remains a desirable city for its residents to raise their families. Lakewood's new motto, "Times Change, Values Don't," accurately demonstrates that the hopes and dreams of Lakewood's residents today are not that different from those of the folks who came to Lakewood in the fifties.

I was raised in Lakewood, and as a kid growing up in the 60s I discovered my city walking and riding my bike to school, the park, and to friends. My memories from those days are deeply ingrained, and for the last five years I have made a nostalgic return to those same streets and places that I traversed and experienced as a boy in search of the Lakewood I remembered. Here is a sampling of some of the portraits I gathered in that effort. All of these photographs are scans of Toned Silver Gelatin Prints I produced in my darkroom.


BIO:  Tom M. Johnson is a Los Angeles-based fine-art portrait photographer. In addition to his personal work, he has photographed assignments for Los Angeles, Oprah, Paper, Money, Forbes, Flaunt, and W magazines. His latest project, "Out of Service," is located in Long Beach.