Photography

Franklin Bros Productions is currently developing a documentary of the digitizing, printing and release of prolific Venice beach photographer Victor Hugo Jaime.

Passions run deep. For Victor Hugo Jaime, his insatiable passion was photographing the people of Venice Beach. Born in Guayaquil, Ecuador on April 24, 1952, Jaime immigrated with his family to the United States at the age of 10, later studying to become an immigration and injury lawyer. While this career gained his family’s approval, Jaime’s real passion was photography. He spent every moment he wasn’t working on Venice Beach, capturing the characters through his intensely personal and immensely beautiful photographs. With enthusiastic models from all walks of life, he spent five decades on the Beach before passing away from COVID19 at the age of 68.

Capturing a diverse range of themes, Jaime photographed Venice Beach from the 1970s to his passing in 2020. He was able to photograph art, music, entertainers, portraits, fashion, swimsuit models and competitors, muscle beach competitions, skateboarders, roller skaters, surfers, graffiti, sand castles, clowns, tricksters, freaks, bikers, cars, lovers, squarrellers, animals, and of course the beach itself. This collection highlights the best era of these photographs from the late 1970s to the early 1980s. After a thoughtful and thorough examination of tens of thousands of these photographs 20 have been carefully selected to showcase around the world.

With the sheer number of photographs, this may be the largest collection of photos of Venice Beach in the world. A lawyer who spent every waking moment photographing and learning the Beach is a rare individual. This can be seen in the eyes of the subjects of his photos, they express an excitement and comfort that suggests the photographer was one of their own, not a voyeur trying to exploit them. He was also very adept at shooting movement, and somehow captured the incredible energy of Beach activities like skateboarding and surfing, again showing his vast experience. Having done all of this at the most famous beach in the world shows a very unique perspective and enhances the value of this collection.