HERE
May 23 – December 16, 2011
COVER: Todd Hido, Untitled #1941, 1996. OPPOSITE: Richard Misrach, 2.21.00; 4:38pm, 2000.
HERE The San Francisco Bay Area has inspired photographers from around the world since the early 1860s. This area evokes wonder and curiosity, from the rolling hills, breathtaking vistas, and dynamic redwood forests to the distinctive bridges and the bay itself. As subcultures developed alongside urban and suburban sprawl, photographers have flocked to the Bay Area to capture the character of the region’s people and land. From the drama of early landscape photographs by Carleton E. Watkins to intimate portraits of youth on the streets by Jim Goldberg and Richard Misrach, both beauty and tragedy have compelled photographers to document the Bay Area. The exhibition, HERE., presents a selection of works produced by local photographers as well as a range of images of the Bay Area. With an emphasis on the late-twentieth century, the exhibition highlights the vibrancy of San Francisco and the surrounding areas through the work of 34 photographers and over 600 images.
On view, the paired panoramas of Eadweard Muybridge and Mark Klett chronicle urban growth over a 113-year span, while Todd Hido, Bill Owens, and Larry Sultan examine the effects of suburban advancement. Arnold Genthe’s documentation of the 1906 earthquake and Richard Misrach’s large-scale prints recording the 1991 Oakland fire encapsulate the volatility of the Northern California landscape. The exhibition also features images of San Francisco captured by photographers visiting this area. The energy of urban life captured in the street photographs of Lee Friedlander, Paul Graham, and Stephan Shore; development as represented by the vacant interior images of Oakland by Anthony Hernandez; the devastated landscape of Candlestick Point by Lewis Baltz, and the remarkable architecture of local theaters as examined by Hiroshi Sugimoto all serve as vignettes of life in San Francisco.
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01 03 Restrooms
Entrance
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01 Todd Hido
12 Eadweard Muybridge Mark Klett
02 San Francisco Mug Shots
13 Jim Goldberg
03 Richard Misrach
14 Arnold Genthe Johan Hagemeyer Dorothea Lange
04 The Bay
15 Edward Weston John Gutmann Ruth Bernhard
05 Selected Scene from Bullitt
16 Chauncey Hare Bill Owens Catherine Wagner
06 Richard Misrach
17 Selections from the Collection
07 Anthony Hernandez
18 Richard Misrach Peter Stackpole John Chiara
08 Carleton E. Watkins
19 Henry Wessel
09 Kota Ezawa
20 Todd Hido
10 Katy Grannan
21 Leon Borensztein
11 Larry Sultan
22 Doug Rickard
PIER 24 PHOTOGRAPHY Pier 24 Photography offers a venue for photographers, educators, collectors, and curators to share photography and photographic ideas with the community. Our aim is to provide an environment to experience and quietly contemplate photography. In addition to presenting ongoing exhibitions, Pier 24 houses the permanent photographic collection of The Pilara Foundation.
OPPOSITE: Todd Hido, #10240 (Bay Bridge), 2011. Anonymous, San Francisco Mug Shots, 1903 – 1918.
ABOVE: Richard Misrach, Untitled #12-91 (Oakland Fire), 2011.
“Its borders are finite, unyielding, and its history is short, as the time of cities is reckoned, and yet centuries of drama, comedy, and tragedy have been enacted on its peopled hills and in its shadowed valleys.� Herb Caen, 1986
Jim Goldberg, Good Friday, 1990.
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Ed Van Der Elsken, San Francisco, 1960. Robert Frank, San Francisco, 1956. Lee Friedlander, San Francisco, 1970. Diane Arbus, Topless dancer in her dressing room, San Francisco, CA, 1968. Robert Frank, Chinese Cemetery - San Francisco, 1956. Irving Penn, Hell’s Angels, San Francisco, 1967. Lee Friedlander, San Francisco, 1970. Stephen Shore, Market Street, San Francisco, California, September 4, 1974, 1974.
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Lee Friedlander, San Francisco, c. 1970. Frank Gohlke, View of Ocean Beach from Sutro Heights, San Francisco, California, 1975. Robert Frank, Cafeteria - San Francisco, 1956. Garry Winogrand, Candlestick Park, San Francisco, 1964. Lee Friedlander, San Francisco, 2009. Richard Misrach, Untitled #107-91 (Oakland Fire), 2011. Hiroshi Sugimoto, Orinda Theater, Orinda, 1992. Hiroshi Sugimoto, Los Altos, Drive-in, 1993. Hiroshi Sugimoto, Castro Theater, 1992.
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Lewis Baltz, Candlestick Point, 1984 – 1988. Paul Graham, San Francisco (man selling flowers), 2005. Katy Grannan, Edward (With Prayer Beads), Baker Beach, 2006. Jim Goldberg, Good Friday, 1990.
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Lewis Baltz, Candlestick Point, 1984 – 1988.
Bullitt, (Selected Scene), 1968. [video still]
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2 Richard Misrach 1. Hawk and Dog, 1972 – 1974. 2. Phil, 1972 – 1974. 3. Dennis and Rusty, 1972 – 1974.
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“The Avenue had gone through many sobering changes since the flower children era: street people were crashing in parking lots, filthy streets and condemned buildings, and the idealistic and spirited rebellion of the late sixties had been all but destroyed by the “system’s” unresponsiveness. A bitter, disheartened mood pervaded the Avenue. Yet, there remained the spark of defiance and endurance that persists as a reminder of a noble struggle. It is that spark which characterizes a significant era in the history of Telegraph Avenue’s Street culture.” Richard Misrach, 1974
Richard Misrach, Telegraph, 3 A.M., 1972 – 1974.
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“A rich silence, heavy with secrets and untold stories, hangs in the air of each doomed space, and the banal residue of everyday life seems to cling to the blank walls like mold. Hernandez frames these rooms with such sensitivity that the spaces themselves come across as living things, active, and emotive.� Holly Myers, LA Weekly, 2001
Anthony Hernandez, Pictures for Oakland #13, 2000.
07 Anthony Hernandez, Selections from Pictures for Oakland, 2000.
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“The large-scale photographs of Carleton E. Watkins are among the great achievements of American photography. They document the Western Territories at a pivotal moment in the nation’s development, and do so with a passion and authority that laid the foundation for a century of landscape photography to follow. The prints themselves signified a major advance in the technical possibilities of the medium.
Their subtle range of tones and astonishing detail remain impressive even when compared to the most technically advanced photographs of modern times. Though eleven mammoth-plates can convey only a fraction of Watkins’ achievement, they are nonetheless triumphs of the medium, seen through several of the most beautiful prints known to exist.� Jeffrey Fraenkel, 2011
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Carleton E. Watkins 1. Cape Horn, Columbia River, 1867. [pictured on previous page] 2. Nevada Fall, 700 ft., Yosemite, 1861. 3. View from Roundtop, Cloud Scene Looking East from Azimuth, Vertical Wall Just West of Azimuth in Foreground, Blue Lakes on Right, 1879. 4. Yosemite Falls, View from the Bottom, Yosemite, 1878 – 1881.
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5. Charter Oak, Thurlow Lodge, Menlo Park, 1874. 6. Section of the Grizzly Giant [with an older Galen Clark], c. 1880. 7. View Down the Valley from Union Point, Yosemite, c. 1878 – 1881. 8. The Domes from the Merced River, Yosemite, c. 1872. 9. Vernal Fall, 300 ft., Yosemite, 1871. 10. Cathedral Rock, Yosemite, 1861. 11. Pompompasos, Three Brothers, Yosemite, 1878 – 1881.
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09 Kota Ezawa, The Simpson Verdict, 2002. [video still]
Katy Grannan, Legend, 2011. [video still]
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“For the past two years, I have been hiring day laborers as actors in the landscape photographs I make on the outskirts of the suburbs. I drive to lumber yards and big box hardware stores where, every day, from dawn to early evening, hundreds of men wait nearby to be picked up for hourly work. They gather in small groups on the edge of a vacant lot or sit on the grassy verge at the freeway entrance. The men come here to work, often for four or five years, before returning to their wives and sisters, mothers and children. They occupy landscapes which are the marginal spaces and transitional zones invisible to most of us. I’m not sure if there is a specific term for these places. They are deeply reminiscent of the terrain I sought out as a child: empty fields behind malls and scruffy borderlands of the LA river that ran behind my house in the San Fernando Valley. These places represented a small and vanishing patch of paradise that existed just outside of the boundaries of property and ownership; a free zone that eased my (adolescent) uncertainty and provided a safe place away from the judgments of others. I direct these men’s actions and gestures while drawing from multiple sources: an amalgam of my own childhood wanderings in this landscape as well as interpretations of their experiences as exiles. The resulting dramas are small and mundane in nature: carrying food to a potluck, stringing lights on a tree, or walking to a waiting car. They are routines and rituals related to place and domesticity, alluding to the poignancy of displacement and the longing for home.” Larry Sultan, 2009
11 Larry Sultan, Creek, Santa Rosa, 2007.
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Larry Sultan 1. Cul-de-Sac, Antioch, 2008. 2. Novato, 2007. 3. Antioch Creek, 2008. 4. Canal District, San Rafael, 2006.
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Hamilton Field, 2009. Meander, Corte Madera, 2006. Richmond Parkway, 2007. Batting Cage, 2007. Simi Valley, 2009.
Eadweard Muybridge, Panorama of San Francisco, from California Street, 1878. Mark Klett, Panorama of San Francisco from California Street, 1990.
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Jim Goldberg 1. Medical Examiner, City of San Francisco, 1992. 2. Destiny’s Shiny Bracelet, 1989. 3. Oasis, 1989.
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Sleezy Old Men, 1989. Early Morning, Plummer Park, 1990. Walking Around For Hours and Hours, 1989. Runaway from Florida Who Stole Her Daddy’s Credit Card, 1989.
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Jim Goldberg 1. I’m Dave, 1988 – 1989. 2. Echo, Four Days Before the Baby Was Born, 1991. 3. Carl’s Jr., Summer ‘89, 1989.
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4. 101 Pictures, 1986 – 1989. 5. Confiscated Objects, 1995.
Jim Goldberg, Untitled, 1987 – 1992.
THROUGH THE DECADES For over a century and a half, countless internationally renowned photographers have called the San Francisco Bay Area home. While it would be nearly impossible to represent all of their major contributions to the medium of photography, Galleries 14, 15, and 16 present a selection from the oeuvre of 9 photographers who have built their career in the Bay Area. In chronological order, each room features a selection of works by three artists, one artist per wall. The works with-
in these galleries span nearly seven decades, from the early 1900s through the 1970s. Beginning with the 1906 earthquake and fire photographs by Arnold Genthe, continuing through images of San Francisco in the midto-late 1930s by John Gutmann, and concluding with the photographs of quiet construction sites captured in the late 1970s by Catherine Wagner, these three galleries present mere moments – slices of time – as one moves from decade to decade, artist to artist.
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Arnold Genthe, 1906 San Francisco Earthquake and Fire, 1906.
Johan Hagemeyer Crossing, Market Street, San Francisco, 1922. Emporium Roof, San Francisco, 1923. View from 371 Filbert Street, 1948. Pueblo-esque, 1922. View from San Francisco and Oakland Bay Bridge, 1948. View from a Roof, San Francisco, 1923. Traffic on Post Street, from Studio, 1920.
Dorothea Lange Demonstration, San Francisco, 1933. White Angel Breadline, San Francisco, 1933. Market Street, San Francisco, 1945. Ditched, Stalled and Stranded, San Joaquin Valley, California, 1935. Missouri family of 5, seven months from the drought area, on U.S. Highway 99 near Tracy, California, 1937. The General Strike, 1934.
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Edward Weston Nude, 1927. Untitled (Nude, Virginia), 1933. Nude in the doorway (Charis, Santa Monica), 1936. Nude, 1934. Nude, 1936.
John Gutmann Lunch Hour, San Francisco, 1934. Car at Election Time, San Francisco, 1939. Chinese Playground, San Francisco, 1938. Angle Parking on San Francisco Hill, 1938. WPA, San Francisco, 1937. “Ham and Eggs”, San Francisco, 1938. Dream of Uprising, 1935. Girlie Mags, San Francisco, 1937.
Ruth Bernhard Abstract Torso, 1947. Two Forms, 1963. Classic Torso, 1947. Harvest, 1953. Dark Torso with Hands, 1971.
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Chauncey Hare Eel River, California, 1969. Cincinnati, Ohio, 1971. Weirton, West Virginia, 1971. West Chester, Pennsylvania, 1971. Wintersville, Ohio, 1971.
Bill Owens Sunday afternoon we get it together. I cook the steaks and my wife makes the salad., 1972. 2 chairs and a TV., 1972. Our house is built with the living room in back, so in the evenings we sit out front of the garage and watch the traffic go by., 1972. I don’t feel that Richie playing with guns will have a negative effect on his personality., 1971. My hobby is drinking. On the weekends I enjoy getting together with friends and boozing., 1971. We feel most people have the wrong attitude towards sex, that it’s nasty and to be done only in the dark., 1971. If Bank of America knew the truth..., 1971.
Catherine Wagner Rooftop Site 1, San Francisco, 1978 Marin Catholic High School, 1976. Marin Catholic High School, 1976. Metallic Construction II, 1976. Richmond, CA (telephone pole & filled loading dock), 1978. Time Oil Co., Richmond, CA, 1976. Rooftop Site II, San Francisco, 1978.
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ABOVE: Michael von Graffenried, Baseball, 2006. BELOW: Irving Penn, The Polo Grounds, New York, 1949.
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ABOVE: Stephen Shore 1. Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 1978. 2. Graig Nettles, Fort Lauderdale Yankee Stadium, Florida, 1978. 3. Batting Cage and Apparatus, March 5, 1978. 4. Fort Lauderdale Yankee Stadium, Florida, 1978. 5. Catfish Hunter, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, 1978.
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BELOW: Marvin Newman 1. Untitled (Yankee Stadium), 1955. 2. Night baseball game, Yankee Stadium, Bronx, 1956. 3. Night baseball game, Yankee Stadium, Bronx, 1955. 4. Night baseball game, Yankee Stadium, Bronx, 1955. 5. Untitled (Baseball Game), 1955. 6. Night baseball game, Yankee Stadium, Bronx, 1955.
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ABOVE: Richard Misrach Golden Gate Bridge 6.15.98; 5:48am, 1998. Golden Gate Bridge 3.20.00; 4:05-5:00am, 2000. Golden Gate Bridge 3.19.99; 11:14am, 1999.
BELOW: Peter Stackpole, When They Built the Bridge (18 Photographs of the Building of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge), 1934 – 1936.
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“Photography has a long and complicated relationship to memory and the madness of the self-encounter. I find that strong visual memories are produced because of their psychological connection to moments of intense self-reconciliation. As time passes, what was being reconciled becomes no longer attached, but the psychological weight burns the visual into memory. Visual memory seems to always be in flux. Memories are unbound, with divergent edges. You have to move around in them to get points of clarity.� John Chiara, 2011
John Chiara, Oakland Bay Bridge, 2011.
John Chiara, Golden Gate Bridge, 2011.
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“The process of photographing is a pleasure: eyes open, receptive, sensing, and at some point, connecting. It’s thrilling to be outside your mind, your eyes far ahead of your thoughts.” Henry Wessel, 2006
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Henry Wessel 1. City Beach, 1976. [not pictured] 2. San Francisco, 1973. 3. San Francisco, 1972. 4. Los Angeles, 1970. 5. Southern California, 1985. 6. Richmond, CA., 1989. 7. Santa Monica, CA., 1989. 8. California, 1969. 9. California, 1986. 10. California, 1986. 11. Southwest, 1969. 12. Walapai, Arizona, 1971. 13. California, 1986. 14. Nevada, 1975.
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San Francisco, 1978. San Francisco, California, 1993. San Francisco, 1977. Pennsylvania, 1968. New Jersey, 1975. Santa Monica, California, 1993. Santa Barbara, California, 1977. Night walk No. 39, 1995. Night walk No. 33, 1995. Night walk No. 49, 1998. Night walk No. 46, 1998. Night walk No. 48, 1995. Night walk No. 15, 1997.
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Todd Hido, Selections from House Hunting, 1996 – 2010.
“I feel that my task is not to create meaning but to charge the air so that meaning can occur. In all of my pictures, I see something of myself. The root of my work comes from the aberrations of my childhood and how these become attractions in adulthood. It is an attempt to understand how we replay and recreate our earlier lives over and over again. To me its all about going back and responding to my history, my memory.� Todd Hido, 2011
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“My black and white images reflect the alienation so typical of today’s America. The same subject – in the customer’s version – shows an apparent feeling of togetherness and satisfaction.” Leon Borensztein, 2011
Leon Borensztein 1. Boxer, (Carson City Nevada), 1980. 2. Man with Tattoo on his Arm, (Oakland, California), 1985. 3. Veterans of Royal Canadian Forces, (Petaluma, California), 1985. 4. Girl with New Lunch Box, (Stockton, California), 1985. 5. American Indian, (Phoenix, Arizona), 1986. 6. Woman in Polka Dress, (San Francisco), 1984. 7. Biker’s Back, (Cheyenne Wyoming), 1985.
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Doug Rickard, Selections from A New American Picture, 2007 – 2009.
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“A few years ago I discovered Google Street View and began exploring American cities large and small, urban and suburban. Immersed in the aesthetic of broken and neglected spaces, I found emptiness and alienation, the inverse of the American Dream. I spent hundreds of hours “driving” via Google Street View, moving the camera freely, while looking for scenes. As I put the project together, I felt a strange connection to Walker Evans, Robert Frank, Stephen Shore, and other nineteenth century American photographers. American photography has roots in the practical, not unlike the Google Street platform in purpose and intent. This provocative link to photographic lineage – the tradition and content, the expansive view of the U.S., the document of people, the anonymous, neglected and invisible – illuminates a remarkable parallel to the history of documentary photography.” Doug Rickard, 2011
Doug Rickard 1. #83.016417, Detroit, MI, 2009 – 2010. 2. #39.937119, Camden, NJ, 2009 – 2010. 3. #82.948842, Detroit, MI, 2009 – 2010.
Pier 24 Photography would like to thank the following individuals and organizations for their assistance in making this exhibition possible: Bancroft Library David Mahoney Erin O’Toole Fraenkel Gallery John Fisher Jeffrey Fraenkel Larry Sultan Estate Pace/MacGill Gallery Peter MacGill Paul Sack Robert H. Shimshak Sandra Phillips SFMOMA Stephen Wirtz Gallery
©2011 Pier 24 Photography All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher. Design: Nate Phelps Installation photography: Tom O’Connor Edition: 3000 ISBN: 978 - 0 -9839917- 0 - 0
Pier 24 The Embarcadero San Francisco, CA 94105 p. 415.512.7424 f. 415.512.7456 e. info@pier24.org