Charles Brittin, L.A. photographer was 82

Charles Brittin was a beat-era photographer whose best-known work captured Los Angeles and the avant-garde artists of the decades when the Ferus Gallery was big. His photos from the streets in the '50s and '60s also tell the story of Los Angeles. His collection resides at the Getty Research Institute, and he appears in the Morgan Neville documentary, "The Cool School." "Charles Brittin is not as revered in Los Angeles as his work deserves," Judy Graeme wrote for LA Observed in 2008, in her Native Intelligence series on Los Angeles photographers. Brittin died Sunday of pneumonia at Saint John's Health Center in Santa Monica. He was 82.

Previously on LA Observed:
Charles Brittin's home in Santa Monica Canyon sold to "Doctor Who" producer
When Venice was covered in oil wells

Photo: Model Beverly Walsh with mannequin, 1957, Charles Brittin courtesy of the J. Paul Getty Trust