Here's the place for "eye-popping, color-drenched spectacles"

What: A new Southern California haven for serious photography.

Where: The Annenberg Space for Photography, Century Park, 2000 Avenue of the Stars, No. 10, Los Angeles; (213) 403-3000, annenbergspaceforphotography.org.

Admission: Free

The Annenberg Space for Photography, open since March 27, is designed to remind you of a camera's insides and to show you the wide world.

It's also aimed at the digital future: Though there are gorgeous photos hung on the walls, there isn't much wall space. You're probably going to spend more time looking at digital images on monitors and larger rear-projection screens, which can deliver eye-popping, color-drenched spectacles.

There are many pluses to this, because voice-overs and soundtracks often give the monitor and screen presentations more oomph. But old-school photophiles may wish more room were given to museum-style displays.

The 10,000-square-foot space (on the Century City site where the Shubert Theater once stood) features plenty of high-tech gizmos along with its gallery space, rooms for slide shows, lectures and workshops, and, I'm not exactly sure why, a kitchen. The hours are 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Wednesdays through Sundays. Through Nov. 1, the space is showing "Pictures of the Year International," a survey of 2008 photojournalism assembled by the Missouri School of Journalism's Donald W. Reynolds Journalism Institute. (If you get there in time, check out Ronald W. Erdrich's amazing shot of a zooming orange butterfly.)