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14 | November 11, 2020 | MALIBU SURFSIDE NEWS MALIBU
malibusurfsidenews.com
FROM THE EDITOR
POSTED TO malibusurfsidenews.com
Moving beyond the fire by looking into it
4
DAYS AGO
SCOTT STEEPLETON
scott@malibusurfsidenews.com
E
ric Myer made
some moving
images of people
who lost everything in the
Woolsey Fire, including
almost two dozen of his
neighbors.
His project, “Malibu
After,” at malibuafter.
com, encompasses four
themes from that deadly
blaze — portraits, panoramics,
vestiges and
abstracts — and described
by Myer as “high-resolution
large-scale panoramic
environmental portraits of
individuals and families”
along with artifacts rescued
from the blaze and
post-fire abstracts from 42
destroyed homes.
The eyes of his subjects
grip your soul, their faces
touch your heart. Many
wear street clothes, while
one family is in what
can best be described as
hazmat gear.
The placement of some
of the subjects is intended
to draw you into their
world, while for others
it’s simply to show what
their world had become
because of the fire.
“Vestiges I” focuses on
hands cradling a variety
of objects dug from the
rubble, including a 35 mm
film camera obliterated
by the flames, diamond
wedding set and a baby
Buddha.
“I wanted to ‘bear witness’
to this catastrophe
and through my photography
capture its profound
physical and emotional
impact,” he says in the
artist statement accompanying
the portfolio. “I
felt that it was important
to reveal the authentic
Malibu that I have known
for 35 years.”
As someone forced
from home for months
because of the Thomas
Fire three years earlier,
I was brought to tears
by the panoramic titled
“Trancas Highlands Rainbow
— Tallal Residence.”
Here, Myer captured a
rainbow over the rubble of
the home of Malibu Film
Society’s Scott Tallal and
wife Jimy Tallal.
In it, I see the rainbow
connection.
The piece reminded me
of just how badly vendors
bungled our repairs and
how poorly the insurance
carrier treated us, taking
me back to moments
where I stopped believing
in rainbows and what’s on
the other side because, for
a time, neither existed.
On Instagram (@ericmyerphoto),
Myer adds to
the stories. For instance,
accompanying a shot of
Mary Pritchett and three
neighbors standing amid
a razed home is this caption
from Pritchett: “We
brought Champagne to
the photo shoot because
enough time had passed
that we wanted to celebrate
life instead of loss.”
Had the shoot taken
place earlier, Pritchett
says, “it would’ve been a
totally different vibe.”
If you’ve already seen
the photos, take a look
again. If you haven’t,
you’re missing out on an
important piece of Malibu
history.
Malibu
Surfside News
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SOUND OFF
Board spars over Malibu’s charting new course for schools
Drati email called
‘deeply offensive, wildly
hypocritical’
CRAIG FOSTER
Open Letter to Santa Monica-
Malibu Unified School District
Superintendent Ben Drati:
Dr. Drati, your recent email
to all school district parents was
equal parts deeply offensive,
wildly hypocritical and completely
inappropriate.
The city of Malibu recently
chose to withdraw from fruitless,
never-ending negotiations
with SMMUSD and, instead, to
take its grievances to the proper
authorities. That is not bad faith,
that is common sense after five
years of constantly receding goal
posts in what has become an utterly
selfish, bordering on narcissistic,
school district bargaining
position. Please spare us your talk
of “equity” when your district and
ours and any combination thereof
will have more money per student
than 99.9 prcent of California’s
1,000 school districts. You want
“equity?” How about you give
$4,000 per student to Compton
Unified right now to create “equity”
where it really means equity.
What you mean is extortion:
Malibu gives you $4 billion over
the next 50 years for the right to
what every other school district in
this state has by law: contiguous
borders and local control.
This is not an abstract political
exercise. Under Santa Monica’s
rule, Malibu’s lost 35 percent
of our students in six years. Our
100 percent Santa Monica school
Critic of superintendent
‘very harsh, inflammatory
and unfair’
sion of the facts. As board members,
we feel compelled to set the
record straight by addressing the
factual inaccuracies and baseless
assertions raised in the letter.
JON KEAN, LAURIE LIEBERMAN,
RICHARD TAHVILDARAN-JESSWEIN
First, Dr. Drati serves as the superintendent
for all 9,700 students
in SMMUSD, not just the students
A letter written by Craig Foster, who live in Santa Monica. To imply
anything else perpetuates a
one of our colleagues on the Santa
Monica-Malibu Unified School fallacy that is dragged out every
District Board of Education, levels
some very harsh, inflammatory and
unfair accusations at Superintendent
Ben Drati concerning recent
developments about “unification”
(separation of Santa Monica and
Malibu schools into two separate
and distinct districts).
In this day and age, it is increasingly
critical to our discourse that
we acknowledge over and over
again that everyone is entitled to an
so often by Malibu residents who
support separation from SMMUSD
and actively seek examples of their
perceived mistreatment by the district
to justify that action. In fact,
over the past few years, significant
progress has been made to enhance
Malibu schools’ local control over
fundraising, construction and curricular
choices. Dr. Drati has been
a leader in helping SMMUSD
achieve these very interests. The
Please see FOSTER, 35 opinion, but not to their own ver-
Please see CRITIC, 35