Los Altos resident and photographer S.M. Lieu was excited to gift a collection of photos celebrating parenthood to her community. Back in January, Lieu proposed to the Public Arts Commission a pop-up show of 39 photos depicting the interaction of local parents and their children to be posted in planters along the streets of downtown Los Altos. It was approved, and the photos were put up May 1.
But sometime between May 17 and May 20, 15 of her photos in the “Parenthood” display and an additional sign explaining the photos disappeared. Four additional photos were found littered elsewhere in the downtown area.
“I found one on the top of the newspaper dispenser, just nicely put there,” Lieu said. “Two were tucked away under somebody else’s A-frame sign. It was just weird.”
Lieu noted that none of the photos had graffiti drawn on them, and none of the plants in the planter showed signs of damage, leading her to believe it wasn’t a kid who removed the photos.
Clearing the ‘clutter’?
Lieu believes it may be possible some of her photos were taken down by an adult unhappy with what might be considered clutter. She explained that while scouting out how many planters she would need for the pop-up, a woman asked what she was doing and expressed unhappiness that Lieu would be “adding to the clutter of downtown.”
“It led me to think that maybe there are people who don’t like all the flyers and the parklets,” Lieu said. “It’s a lively and more engaged downtown, but it is less aesthetically unified than a beautiful, perfectly manicured downtown, so maybe people don’t like that. And they just saw this as an intrusion and wanted to pull them out. I really don’t know.”
Lieu intends to print more photos to replace the 19 that remain missing.
“I don’t want to start an install/remove/install/remove equivalent of a ‘graffiti war’ in downtown,” she said. “But so many people have enthusiastically supported the project that I would like to restore it and add some planned images for Father’s Day.”
Lieu added that because of the disappearing photos, she’ll likely take down her pop-up a week after Father’s Day instead of letting it run until the end of June.
“I just hope to get the show back up as soon as I can, and hope people enjoy it,” she said.
“We were all saddened and gave her words of encouragement not to let this senseless act color her enthusiasm for the project and the Los Altos community,” said Monica Waldman, chairperson of the Public Arts Commission. “Very unfortunate!”
Anyone with information on the disappearance of Lieu’s photos is urged to email the Town Crier [email protected].
To view Lieu’s virtual “Parenthood” photo gallery, visit smlieu.zenfolio.com/23parenthoodShow01.
Disclosure: Lieu has done freelance photography work for the Town Crier.
