It’s Stiller, in editor mode

Sometimes it’s hard to distinguish Ben Stiller from his goofy alter egos Greg Focker and Derek Zoolander. But last week at the Hermes gallery on Rodeo Drive, he was in a serious role -- photography editor. Stiller and his wife, actress Christine Taylor, were there to celebrate the launch of “Looking at Los Angeles,� a book of photographs he edited with curator and friend Marla Hamburg Kennedy. (See Christopher Knight’s Critic’s Notebook on Page E42.) The images will be on display there through Friday.

“It was really Marla’s idea,� Stiller said. “She knows I have an interest in images of L.A. going back to the beginnings of the city. And she said it would be easy -- ‘We will just look at a bunch of photos and decide what we like.’ �

Two years and 5,000 photos later, the native New Yorkers had a book, with proceeds going to the L.A. Conservancy, where Stiller is on the board.

“Our first criterion was that the image had to be a work of art,� said Hamburg Kennedy. “But it also had to have an ‘only in L.A.-ness,’ in terms of the architecture or landscape -- the shrub of the hills or helicopters at night. You need to have lived in L.A. to understand the meaning of helicopters at night.�

Although Stiller has 100 to 200 images in his own collection, which lean toward the documentary style, he still thinks of photography as a hobby. “I’m not a serious collector,� he said. “For me, it’s all about personal taste.� So don’t expect a big-screen send-up of the photography world a la “Zoolander’s� take on the fashion industry. His next project is something a little more personal: a second child. Wife Taylor is due this summer.

-- Booth Moore