Fans of American architecture will gather later this month at downtown’s Millennium Biltmore for a conference dedicated to Frank Lloyd Wright’s work in Los Angeles. The five-day event features tours, lectures and a gala dinner to celebrate one of the world’s most influential architects.
Likely overlooked in all of that, though, will be a man whose presence in Wright’s story makes him a real-life counterpart to Woody Allen’s cinematic chameleon, Leonard Zelig. His name is Pedro E. Guerrero, though friends call him Pete.
The photographer documented Wright and his work for two decades. He also chronicled the lives of art-world greats Alexander Calder and Louise Nevelson, among others. And yet he remains a shadow figure who, at 88, looks back with surprise and gratitude on a career that enabled him to forge unlikely friendships with at least three of the 20th century’s creative giants.