Vote Westward at City Hall

For the next year, the basement of San Francisco City Hall is hosting Westward, which features the work of 10 women photographers examining the American West.

Two of the photographers stood out from the rest for me, starting with Jennifer Little from Oakland.

Little has been documenting the ongoing ecological disaster of the Owens Valley on the Eastern Sierras where the Los Angeles County Water District has been siphoning water since the beginning of the 20th Century.

Brine Dust Mitigation, Aerial View, Owens Dry Lake, CA, 2017 looks like a post-apocalyptic vision of hell.

The other standout was Greta Pratt, who is working on a series of Western photos called A Cloud of Dust. The 2014 image above is titled Julee and Her Daughters, Chandler, AZ.

The 2016 Sexual Harassment Notice, Anaconda, MT features signage which reads, SEXUAL HARASSMENT IN THIS AREA WILL NOT BE REPORTED. HOWEVER, IT WILL BE "GRADED."

Pratt's photos of people have something of a Diane Arbus edge, except kinder and color-drenched, such as Ryan in His Money Chaps, Okemah, OK...

...and Ashton Old Elk After the Relay Race, Fort Hall, UT.

While visiting the City Hall basement exhibit, you can also vote early every day from now through the Tuesday, June 5th election.

The San Francisco Mayoral election is an extremely important one, and I urge you to vote for Mark Leno and/or Jane Kim in Ranked Choice Voting slots #1 and #2. Either one of them would be a huge improvement over the corrupt cabal that has been running this city for decades. For slot #3, choose Angela Alioto or Amy Farrah Weiss, depending upon your proclivities, but NOT London Breed who has been demonstrably lying during this campaign about a host of issues, including her backers from Ron Conway to Willie Brown, Jr. Don't let her name anywhere near that arrow you complete on the paper ballot. Also, please vote no on SF Proposition D, which was a cynical attempt to rig a poison pill to the similar Proposition C. The shenanigans are well explained in an SF Weekly article by Garrett Bergthold.