Polaroids

 
Untitled (Collage #1), Palm Springs, CA, 1973
 

Book 2

Kali began using a Big Shot camera in the 1970s.

A certain time and place resides on these boards and in Kali’s archive, from the low desert of Palm Springs to the Santa Monica State Beach of the 1960s and ’70s. There was a journey to India, remembered in photographs of the Taj Mahal, but the predominant geographical feel of Kali’s archive is California. A young mother’s own coming of age is documented as she photographs her teenage daughter’s youthful eyes as well as those of visiting neighborhood kids—“Psychedelic Mary,” Margie, and mysterious Cindy—layering them on top of the physical landscape. 

TEXT BY ALEXANDRA JARRELL

 
Peter, Palm Springs, CA, 1971
 
Untitled (Collage (Kali) #4), Palm Springs, CA, 1973
Untitled (Collage (Kali) #5), Palm Springs, CA, 1973
 
Daisy Face, Palm Springs, CA, 1970
 
Floral Face, Palm Springs, CA, 1970
 
 
Psychedelic Mary, Palm Springs, CA, 1968
 
Pinwheel, Palm Springs, CA, 1968; Classic Psychedelic Mary #2, Palm Springs, CA, 1968; and Castle Blue Eye, Palm Springs, CA, 1969
 
 
Georgie, Palm Springs, CA, 1969
 
Psychedelic Mary #3, Palm Springs, CA, 1968
 
 
Mary Mary, Palm Springs, CA, 1968
 
Ruby Eyes, Palm Springs, CA, 1968
 
 
Margie Boy, Palm Springs, CA, 1968; Christopher Su, Palm Springs, CA, 1971; Mary Lampshade, Palm Springs, CA, 1969; and Looking Up (Debbie), Palm Springs, CA, 1969
 
 
Margie and Mary, Palm Springs, CA, 1969
 
Petals, Palm Springs, CA, 1969
 
 
Lips and Texture, Palm Springs, CA, 1969
 
Refracted Face, Palm Springs, CA, 1969
 
Untitled (Collage #2), Palm Springs, CA, 1973
Untitled (Collage #3), Palm Springs, CA, 1973
 
Sci-fi, Palm Springs, CA, 1970