After Newton's death, June (a photographer who went by the name Alice Springs) kept in touch with his three Art Center proteges, with frequent reunions during her winter stays at the Marmont. In recent years, Holz has been based in upstate New York, Arbeit in Hawaii and Loomis in Malibu. All three are represented locally by the Fahey/Klein Gallery on La Brea Avenue.
During one lunch at Mel's Diner on Sunset — another favorite Newton spot — she revealed plans to curate a show of their work, which she would call "Three Boys From Pasadena." It opened June 3, 2009, at the Helmut Newton Foundation museum in Berlin, followed by shows in Paris and New York in 2010, and a month ago in Cologne, Germany, before landing at Art Center.
"Right up there is where I nearly knocked over Ansel Adams," Holz says, recalling an encounter with another photography icon, looking up at a walkway at Art Center. "He was here to give a commencement speech, and I came barreling through the door ...."
A week ahead of the opening, Holz has come to the campus with Arbeit and Loomis to hang the show, and he laughs at the memory, imagining the resulting headline: "Ansel Adams paralyzed by Art Center student."
In the same building where they remember as students seeing exhibitions by the iconic photographers Richard Avedon and Irving Penn, the trio was devoting the final week before the opening to hanging pictures and finalizing a new 30-minute documentary about their time with Newton.
"We continue to be friends, although we definitely have our creative differences. Especially in the last two weeks," says Holz with a laugh, noting that the photographers typically communicate across three time zones. "It's a democracy."
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