Award-winning photographer Ann Collins captures La Jolla in all of its splendor in her new book, “La Jolla: Jewel by the Sea.” The seaside community native chronicles in picture narrative, La Jolla’s historical and present-day status as Southern California’s jewel. Sidling history with stunning land and seascapes, captioned photographs depict all that’s had “a lasting impact on the La Jolla that exists today.” “I wanted to share the community’s interesting history and scenic beauty in a coffee table photo book,” said Collins. “As a writer and photographer, my theme was to show La Jolla as the beautiful, sunny place that it is.” A century ago, La Jolla was an artist colony known as The Green Dragon. And while the arts remain an integral part of the city’s highlights, today, residents and visitors continue to enjoy La Jolla’s rugged coastlines, abundant marine life, sandy beaches, historical landmarks, athletic and recreational events, boutique shopping, fine dining, museums and educational institutions. Historical tidbits include a tribute to Ellen Browning Scripps, “a patron of the arts, science, education, preservation, and recreation,” and well-known notables who’ve donated time and money, or “served on civic/and or cultural communities” and those who’ve “achieved success through inventions, business, talent, skill, intellect, creativity or all of the above.”
Among those highlighted include long-time resident Dr. Seuss and Dr. Roger Revelle “who guided the Scripps Institution of Oceanography to become the internationally known and respected oceanographic institution that it is today.”
The self-described versatile photographer was determined to juxtapose La Jolla’s historical value with its beauty, exemplified by The Mount Soledad Cross. Dedicated to U.S. Veterans, the Cross has towered since 1954. Twenty-five years of lawsuits threatened the relic due to its religious symbolism on government land. The Mt. Soledad Memorial Association purchased the land and saved the Cross. With her family history dating back to the early 1900s, Collins included pictures collected from family scrapbooks, including a family favorite, “my grandmother at age three with my great, great aunt Mary,” and those researched from the La Jolla Historical Society. “I was born in the village of La Jolla when Scripps Memorial Hospital was located on Prospect Street,” she added. “As I’ve grown, so has La Jolla. But the community’s small-town atmosphere remains and the ocean, coastline and climate can’t be beat. La Jolla is a truly a “jewel by the sea.”
Collins dabbled with an instamatic camera as a child and continued through college with a 35mm. While earning an Economics degree from UC Irvine, she wrote articles “to get my photos published.” She became “really serious” with the onset of digital cameras, now able to “instantly see the picture.”
Today, the talented professional travels the globe photographing the likes of Italy, Switzerland, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Japan. She also published a historical romance novel and a cultural manual for Japanese migrants moving to the United States. Collin’s images have graced the covers of About Town Magazines of La Jolla and Solana Beach. Other inclusions include Westways, MotorHome, Highlights for Children, San Diego Family Magazine, the San Francisco Examiner, Arizona Highways Magazine and Sierra Club Engagement Calendars
A black-and-white image, Mojave Desert Rainstorm, was juried in the 2014 Best of Nature Photography Show at the San Diego Natural History Museum. Collins was also selected as a featured artist by Art.com during Women’s History Month.
For more information, visit www.ImagesByAnnCollins.com. La Jolla notables of ‘La Jolla: Jewel by the Sea.’ Carl Ekstrom, the “surf design guru” and a “surfboarder shaper legend,” designed an asymmetrical surfboard – a more maneuverable, dynamic board – wave machines and boards used for riding simulated waves. The industrial engineer called himself a “prototyper.”
Raquel Welch, born Jo Raquel Tejada in Chicago, lived in La Jolla by age 2. The member of the La Jolla High School drama club represented the Southern California Exposition and the San Diego County Fair as the Fairest of the Fair. She married and divorced James Welch, but kept her name throughout a successful modeling and acting career as an international sex symbol. Academy award-winning actor Gregory Peck was born in 1916 in La Jolla. His pharmacist father owned the La Jolla Drug Store, located within the Colonial Hotel. Peck co-founded the La Jolla Playhouse in 1947 with film star Dorothy McGuire and film director and producer Mel Ferrer. President Lyndon B. Johnson awarded Peck the Presidential Medal of Freedom for his notable philanthropy. Cliff Robertson was born in La Jolla in 1925. The Academy Award-winning actor, World War II veteran, aviator, writer, and humanitarian, retired in La Jolla – his “hometown,” in Casa de la Paz overlooking Marine Street Beach, now designated as a historical landmark. For more information, visit www.ImagesByAnnCollins.com.
