On Echo Park’s snapshot of the Sunset Strip, situated between the famous bar crawl that is Gold Room, Bar Flores, and Lowboy, sits secondhand furniture store ‘The Hunt Vintage,’ renting their side room for art exhibitions, concerts, and other artistic gatherings.
I was invited to the space on a timid Thursday evening last month by Leslie Puett, a tattoo-enthusiast film photographer, for her first ever book release. The showing featured five photos blown up on 55×36-inch scrim vinyl canvases, and one extra printed on scrap metal.
Puett captures a gritty nostalgia traversing the ambient; her shadowy but intriguing choice of subjects holding breaths between moments of mediation in action.
“I am drawn to the softer glimpses of power, the vulnerability between pain and rage, the profound light that comes from giving darkness a chance,” she tells me. “I believe we hold such prophetic emotions that carry us through time, we all just need to know how to tap in.”
Each image is an intimate invite to the physical and a reminder to relish the intentions in our surroundings, highlighted by the secrets hidden behind the gazes of others.
Her book HOUSEFIRE is created for those receptive enough to see the light in the dark, through a selection of poetry and photos spanning from 2011-2024. “It is dense with alienation and heartache, dire wonder, and identity death,” says Puett.
She says the name came about because “True pain lies under our own minds like roofs… We gotta tend to what we have before we set it ablaze.”
“Like the monk who burned down his temple – only when we release our inner noise with honor, can we be free.”
In her book are black-and-white photographs of friends, travels, and personal experiences spaced carefully by poetry. One piece, FEVER KEY, reads:
<Scroll left-right to navigate each line>
“icecaps form around my eyes, the weening drops icicles for eyelashes, and blink awake
in so many years there will be sown, all bodies in all mournings, dropping in remission
only fear is only just
a flurry of in between emotes are
yours to keep
the rest of us know only fear, a gap in the light is just as dark, and the amount you see is the amount you lack, flourishing in mouths of remedy
a catch of something to last you until
your next swallow
what suffers will always turn to gold, a flippant grain of sand to bring with you to show
for the pressure of understanding under myself I go
always adjusting
always eluding
never proving anything except for my will to feel hints in the clouding yards of unmarked men
we are still lives in tribal clowns, and bunker down to accept our fate
fat wasting arms that feel like love
the only other thing that matters”
She says her first ever display of works was for the Dead Relatives x Superchief Gallery Groupshow from this past October, a community installation I put together merging different subcultures from a local and worldwide lineup of artists. I pieced 13 of her photos next to a mural of a Huey P. Newton backpiece done by Sergio Hernandez.
Using this event as a warmup, she was pushed to showcase another side of herself, her poetry, having linked up with The Hunt Vintage for a space to host her first ever publishing event. She read aloud from her book and curated DJ’s to spin for the evening.
“With my writing, my style has evolved into a simpler, more concise victory – with my photography, I’m capturing more movement and soul.” She says she has been writing more than ever, and seeks to build more installations and continue reading her work aloud to audiences. “Fearless shit,” Puett comments on her commitment to personal creative work.
Michael Glotzer, owner of The Hunt Vintage, tells me that a few years ago his lease was ending in the Arts District and a fellow business owner of Woodcat Coffee recommended he take over the old dollar store closing down. Glotzer says he’s always had an eye and ear for the arts but hasn’t been able to incorporate that into his business model until moving into the Echo Park neighborhood.
“I was actually born into this business; my mother was an antiques dealer,” says Glotzer. “Not that you have to do what your parents do, but if you ever visit The Hunt Vintage, you’ll see that I’m not just a flipper of furniture but very passionate about everything in the shop… There’s usually an interesting story connected to each piece.”
“I never had the right space for [hosting events] but the moment I walked into this incredible building with its own little side room and entrance, it all clicked! After moving in and becoming friends with so many neighbors, I’ve realized Echo Park has the most incredible concentration of creatives and community-oriented neighbors in any part of Los Angeles I’ve ever been in.”
He says his landlord is the son of the building’s original owner, originally taking over the property to run “Gerry’s Department Store,” open from the 1950s-90s.
His favorite highlights, beyond Puett’s book release, have been ‘28 Lights,’ featuring 28 designers each showcasing an original lamp, and the first pop up of Swedish designer Gustaf Westman.
Ahead on his lineup sits the next installation of the ‘Echo Park Repair Fair,’ premise being to gather any broken items or clothes that need mending, and fixing them for free. The next is January 18th with a free clothing swap. Glotzer says he has plans to brew an exclusively Echo Park artist show in the near future.
“Michael was super chill and accommodating and the space was perfect,” says Puett. “The night was glorious – so many of my people from different eras of my life plus strangers gathered to celebrate the send off of this emotional body of work.”
Visit The Hunt Vintage at 1554 Sunset Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90026.
