Before I start commenting on San Francisco, you should know where I’m coming from.
I’ve spent time with a variety of cities—Washington DC, Chicago, Camden, Providence, Philadelphia, and obviously Boston. More significantly, I lived in the shadow of the greatest city in the world, New York City since I was born. So naturally, I measure every other city against it.
From age 23 to the present was when I fully became acquainted with New York. I would take marathon day trips going until I was completely exhausted, riding the subway practically everywhere and walking any other chance I got. At one point I walked from the Lower East Side to Greenwich Village and saw all the neighborhoods in between. Once I wore out Manhattan, I crossed the bridge into Brooklyn which quickly became my favorite borough.
The more times I would visit New York, the more I became conditioned to the over-stimulation. New York is the most overwhelming city—the noises, the smells, the oppressive heat in the summer, the people crowding every inch of space, and the movement of a million things in a million directions. It doesn’t stop and it doesn’t sleep. All those trips I took, I was conditioning myself to New York so that I could photograph it. I had to get to a place mentally where I could turn off the panic in my brain and focus on life in this crazy place. New York taught me how to document the street, the people, and most importantly how to disappear. I felt a responsibility to expose New York City in small pieces. Each photograph became a little window, a secret, and when I put them together they tried to tell a story of the city. I say tried because I don’t think you’ll ever have a complete story of New York or any city for that matter. Not only is a city constantly changing, but there are many ways to tell stories of cities. For Oakland, I chose street art. For San Francisco here, I chose neighborhoods. There are a lot of them and they each have their own special character.
My goal was to create a snapshot of the neighborhoods I visited and notes from my experiences. Granted I spent a total of maybe 10 days out of my 3 months exploring San Francisco and I didn’t have the luxury of time to get comfortable. This is only my first impression—and not the last.
From exploring the neighborhoods, I found myself furiously looking for something, a deep frustration that I couldn’t quite explain. What was it??!! Something never felt right. I had trouble comparing it to other cities. Yet each part of San Francisco had a glimmer of something familiar to me. Even now I don’t fully understand what I was looking for. I think what I was searching for has something to do with the grit, the original.
Where is the original San Francisco?
(stay tuned for updates to this story!)