If it's April, it's the Month of Photography Los Angeles. MOPLA has fast become a highlight of the annual art calendar, combining the concentration of a fair with the sprawl of the city, and involving both lengthy and one-night exhibitions at proper galleries and intriguing pop-ups all over the geographical and stylistic map. One of the most anticipated is the weeklong pop-up presenting “Kirk Pedersen: Urban Asia” and “Susan Swihart: Passing/Outdoors With Jamie Burris.” Swihart's color-rich, surrealistic chronicling of a performance work by Burris combines interpretive shooting with documentary intention; Pedersen's takes up the age-old tradition of the wandering street photographer but gives it a decidedly modern twist by examining the visually overwhelming urban environment. (Stalking the world's walls also inspired Pedersen's love of street art and his founding of the acclaimed street- and photo-centric Zero+ Publishing.) The Asian metropolises explored through Pedersen's lens are not the only cities in the world blanketed in thick layers of advertising, commercial signage and expressively aging architecture; but for western audiences, the foreignness of language and cultural vernacular adds to the wonderment — and the satisfaction of ferreting out the familiar. MOPLA Pop-Up Gallery, 725 S. Los Angeles St., dwntwn.; Sat., April 13, 6-9 p.m.; runs through April 19; free. mopla.org/programs.

Sat., April 13, 6-9 p.m., 2013

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