In Dialogue: John Sonsini on Bob Mizer

John Sonsini, Los Angeles-based artist best known for his portraits of Latino day laborers began painting from life during the mid-1980s when he worked directly alongside Bob Mizer at Mizer's Athletic Model Guild (AMG) studios. Assistant and long-time friend, Sonsini painted backdrops for Mizer's photo sessions, through which he met models to sit for him. His portraits, often composed by a shallow depth of field, exaggerated extremities and tightly-cropped edges, in ways may be traced to Mizer's wide-angle photography. In Dialogue led by Sonsini, provides a platform for Museum patrons to explore Mizer's body of work that both reflected and distored American ideals of masculinity in the mid-20th century.