Here are some photos from last night’s opening of Eighteen Months: Taking the Pulse of Bay Area Photography at City Hall in San Francisco. The event was put on by the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery and PhotoAlliance. The opening was well attended and the show featured some outstanding work by Bay Area photographers. On to the photos.
Throngs of photography enthusiasts approach city hall and head to the basement.
Lots of people, luckily the halls are wide.
Near the refreshment table.
Bob, Rita, and Barbara.
Now some of the work in no particular order.
Three of mine.
I’d like to present one more photographer who is participating in the Eighteen Months show. Alex Fradkin is working on an intriguing series of photographs of war bunkers.
A native of California and now residing in the San Francisco Bay Area, Alex Fradkin began his photography career in 1996, originally having studied and practiced as an architect. In 2000 Alex graduated with an MFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago and has since followed a path in fine art and documentary photography. Alex previously taught photography at Columbia College and was a staff photographer for CITY 2000, an archive project with the mission to photograph Chicago and its people in the year 2000. Currently Alex is finishing up a project photographing the ruins of war bunkers, to be published by Chronicle Books in the fall of 2009 as a fine art monograph. In 2006 Alex embarked with his large format camera on a three year long book project to photograph the changing California Coastline and its people, to be published and funded by the University of California Press. Alex’s photographs have been published and exhibited internationally and his images reside in numerous private, public and corporate collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Photography (Chicago) and the Portland Art Museum.
A few bits of news to report as I’m preparing for the opening of Eighteen Months at SF City Hall tonight. One of my images was featured in the Local Artist section of yesterday’s San Francisco Bay Guardian newspaper:
You can read the same writeup on their arts and culture blog Pixel Vision. Thanks Johnny.
And thank you Jesse at Fecal Face for posting about the opening on the site’s front page.
I’m looking forward to meeting the other photographers at the opening tonight. Hopefully I’ll have some photos up tomorrow for those of you who weren’t able to make it.
Tomorrow night is the opening of the show “Eighteen Months: Taking the Pulse of Bay Area Photography” put on by the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery. The show is at City Hall in San Francisco. Please stop by if you are in the area. The show runs through September 19.
Eighteen Months: Taking the Pulse of Bay Area Photography
Ground Floor, San Francisco City Hall
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlet Place
(Between Polk and Van Ness, Grove and McAllister - Location in Google Maps)
Opening Reception Thursday, July 17, 5:30 - 7:30pm
Kaycie Roberts is another photographer featured in the Eighteen Months show at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery. Her work from a series called “Collection” is an examination of natural fibers.
I am interested in raw materials that are transformed into other forms. I collect raw fibers, such as wool, cashmere, and silkworm silk, that can be transformed into yarn and thread, which then can become clothes, blanket, and other familiar items. Using an office scanner, I make images inspired by old master still life, Rayograms, and Caravaggio. I want to reveal the disconnection from the origins of everyday objects that happens as our world becomes more focused on technology. The large-than-life size of the images allows for details of the texture to be revealed and can draw the viewer in for a closer look.
Grant Ernhart is one of the photographers participating in the “Eighteen Months” show at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery. The work he is showing is part of a series looking at Gustine, California, a town east of San Jose:
These images were all taken in and around the town of Gustine, CA. Initially, Gustine felt to me like a place where people lived because of habit or circumstance but not out of choice. It is hot, dusty and wide-open. However, the more time I have spent there the more I have become aware of a simplicity that is compelling. Perhaps it is a nostalgia for the all-American rural community that I fostered as a kid through stories of towns with fields that stretched to the edge of one’s vision, and had names like Dassel, Crow Hassan and Blue Earth. This work is not so much an attempt at faithfully documenting the town of Gustine and life there, but instead is a body of work that plays on my own myth of the all-American rural place.
Ceiling Fan, Casatorto Farmhouse
Aurora and Siblings
Hangman’s Park
Fourth of July; Gustine, CA
Check out more of his work on his website or come to the opening Thursday to see it in person.
I am happy to report that one of my images is featured on the Hey, Hot Shot! blog:
Five of my landscape photographs from the “Berms and Drumlins” series will be featured in the exhibition “Eighteen Months: Taking the Pulse of Bay Area Photography” at the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery. The show takes place at San Francisco City Hall and runs July 17 to September 19, 2008.
The show highlights the work of 22 San Francisco Bay Area photographers and I feel privileged to be included. Other artists in the show are Victor J. Blue, Andres Carnalla, Grant Ernhart, Alex Fradkin, Hiroyo Kaneko, Michael Maggid, Vanessa Marsh, Sean McFarland , Julia Nelson-Gal, Elizabeth Pedinotti, Mimi Plumb, Kaycie Roberts, Joshua Smith, Susan Lynn Smith, Naomi Rae Vanderkindren, Serena Wellen, David L. Wilson, Jason Winshell, Sabrina Wong, Bijan Yashar, and Jim Zook.
More information can be found on the exhibition page of the San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery website.
The “Landscape, other” show at Rayko Photo Center was well put together and well attended. Thank you Rita, Gabe, Jim from Bear Images, and Dave for coming out. Ann Jastrab did a great job organizing and publicizing the show.
The show features a wide range of interpretations of landscape photography. I especially enjoyed Charity Vargas’s black and white images of the San Francisco Presidio.
The show will be up until July 15.
My pieces.
Charity Vargas’s photos of the Presidio.
