Lost in America Book Review: Cahan and Williams, have crafted a book that’s an engaging foray through the demise of lost architecture while at the same time the book is a celebration of the Historic American Buildings Survey itself.
HABS Photographer
A Picture Perfect New Year 2023
HABS photography of a former Fotomat for inclusion in the Historic American Buildings Survey collection at the Library of Congress.
TIMES MIRROR HABS (2019)
These are the HABS large format photographs of the Times Mirror Building, constructed in 1970-73 for the Times Mirror Company, and designed by William L. Pereira & Associates.
HABS and HAER Photographs of Lost History
Historic American Buildings Survey Photographs of buildings lost to the wrecking ball or just lost to time.
LA County Hospital HABS photography by Stephen Schafer.
Photography of The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner Building is part of the LAC+USC Medical Center campus in Lincoln Heights.
Using Online Aerial Maps for Photo Scouting, Preservation and HABS/HAER/HALS
Check out this fun video for great tips on researching historic sites, preservation advocacy, and photography related info gathering.
Nomination Photographs for the Watts Coffee House and Mafundi Center
On November 5th, 2020 – during the Covid 19 pandemic – I volunteered for a day of documentation photography in Watts to support the nomination of the Watts Happening Cultural Center and the Mafundi Mural located at East 103rd Street in Los Angeles. It was a sunny day working with Rita Cofield and the staff…
2020 – The Year We Blow Past 100 Documentations
A little list of the HABS, HAER, and HALS documentations Schaf Photo has competed in the past 10+ years…
CEQA Documentation Mitigations for Historic (Cultural) Resources
The example below is a CEQA compliant Level 2 HABS mitigation for a significant historic district, campus, farmstead or any multi-unit grouping of resources. This example follows the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Architectural, Engineering and Landscape Documentation.
Photographer’s Eye: Capturing History Forever, Photographing for the Historic American Buildings Survey
HABS, as the Historic American Buildings Survey is informally called, is arguably the best documentation program in the world for historic buildings. Stephen Schafer has been practicing this archival photographic process to capture sites in California as diverse as an 1840s adobe and a Cold-War stealth ship.