Photos offer a post-9/11 feeling of fear in suburbia

Tuesday, Jan. 24, 2006 | 8:05 a.m.

There is an ominous feeling emanating from the images in "Neighborhood Watch," a photo series by Los Angeles photographer Laura Kleger.

The subject of suburban homes is familiar enough. But the yards are empty, solemn and covered in shadows. Fences and driveways seem desolate and quiet. Shadows represent the unknown.

The absence of people in the photos -- an effort to represent the "every neighborhood" -- furthers the suspicion lurking in the homes and yards

The series, one of two included in the exhibit "Home Front," on display through April 2 at the Charleston Heights Arts Center, 800 S. Brush St., was Kleger's effort to examine how 9/11 affected American life.

" 'Neighborhood Watch' came from the feeling that after 9/11, after going to war, there was sort of this feeling of fear all around us in a way that was very new for me and my generation," Kleger said, via telephone from Los Angeles. "Every day had a certain kind of ominousness to it."

The exhibit also features Kleger's series, "Patriot Memory," in which the photographer rethinks the concepts of historical monuments that were so prevalent in her childhood field trips.

Born and raised in New York City, Kleger, 29, lives in Los Angeles and works as a commercial photographer. Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Town and Country and Details.

A Yale University graduate with a degree in studio art, Kleger received her master's degree from Columbia University in visual arts and has shown her work internationally. She also co-founded Public-Holiday Projects, an artist-based curatorial initiative.

Regarding her own work, Kleger said, "The American social landscape, that is really what I'm interested in. What does our environment say about who we are as a society? What are we as a culture? What is our time?"

Kleger was living in lower Manhattan on 9/11 and began working on "Patriot Memory" in 2002. "Neighborhood Watch" followed.

"Patriot Memory," which focuses on national identity, offers the same quiet and reflective perspective as in "Neighborhood Watch."

"Historic sites had always been kind of benign in school, a field trip, a place to go and I started thinking about what it means to be an American," Kleger said. "Maybe these sites have a pedagogical function that I hadn't thought of."

The reflective nature of her work, she said, extends beyond these two projects.

"Home Front" is on display through April 2. Admission is free. Gallery hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. An artist lecture and reception will be from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 9. Call 229-4674.

Kristen Peterson can be reached at 259-2317 or at kristen@lasvegassun.com.