A photography exhibit by 19 Bay Area artists focusing on various subcultures opened this month in the basement of San Francisco City Hall, and much of it is lovely, including the large black and white photos of Alameda teenage baseball players by Lisa Levine above.
The exhibit is being presented by the San Francisco Arts Commission and PhotoAlliance, and it's hard to know who to blame for the nonsensical ArtSpeak describing the exhibit on the signage. Here's a sample:
"From fashionistas to sports fans, and from mountain climbers to rockabilly swing dancers, how do we identify people who look familiar to each other? If familiar faces are not present in the photographs, what kind of residues do groups leave or what objects could be attached to a place as a signifier of a shared activity or event? What kind of places or objects define a group?"
San Francisco's North Beach attracted a couple of photographers, with Dennis Hearne presenting pictures of the Cafe American Social Club at the Cafe Trieste on Upper Grant Street (the two photos above).
Krista Perkins focuses on Catholic kid rituals in the same neighborhood. I loved the photo above of a girl in what looks like a confirmation dress shooting hoops.
Jackson Nichols has a series of photos documenting the Portuguese community's Holy Ghost Fest around California (those are real women in the Barbie capes above).
The most remarkable photos are a large trio from Robyn Twomey who had a photo assignment from Fortune magazine about the medical marijuana trade, where she met a number of interesting characters suffering from things like leukemia who swore by the herb as their only relief.
She's one great photographer.
Those are some really great images. I'm going to make an effort to get over there. I am in awe of all these current day photogs doing all this really meaningful work.
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