Tag Archives: contemporary

Two Windows

Two Windows
Two windows and metallic walls at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

Two Windows. © Copyright 2022 G Dan Mitchell.

Two windows and metallic walls at the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco.

On my photographic walks in San Francisco — part of a familiar routine that begins with a train ride to The City — it isn’t unusual to pass through the area around Moscone Center and SFMOMA. Just a bit north of here I often follow a route that takes me on sidewalks that don’t border the streets, and I end up passing the fascinating architecture of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, with its angled, metal exterior walls.

As appealing as this structure is, I’ve often found it difficult to photograph. The area around it is somewhat constrained by the proximity of other buildings, and those buildings are visually quite dissonant with the design of this one. So, at least for me, photographs of the larger scale of the building are difficult, and I still don’t have one that I really like. However, moving in closer and working the textures, reflected colors, and the angles and surfaces close up is more promising.


G Dan Mitchell is a California photographer and visual opportunist. His book, “California’s Fall Color: A Photographer’s Guide to Autumn in the Sierra” is available from Heyday Books, Amazon, and directly from G Dan Mitchell.

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Extension, Contemporary Jewish Museum

Extension, Contemporary Jewish Museum
Extension, Contemporary Jewish Museum

Extension, Contemporary Jewish Museum. San Francisco, California. July 14. 2010. © Copyright 2010 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The blue cube-like metal-clad “extension” section of San Francisco’s Contemporary Jewish Museum, with downtown buildings in the background.

This metal structure is the so-called “extension” section of the Jewish Contemporary Museum in downtown San Francisco, located not far from Yerba Buena Center and the Metreon. On my frequent “walking photography” trips to San Francisco I often end up wandering through this area, and this building always intrigues me. The museum is build largely around an old (over 100 years) power plant building, but this metal-clad structure “extends” the underlying building.

The structure itself seems somewhat cube-like when viewed from close by, but is actually part of a larger structure that travels across the room of the power plant building. From up close it towers and leans back over the viewer. The surrounding area is also interesting with a large open space, and old Catholic church, and very tall downtown buildings nearby.

I’ve been working on figuring out how to photograph this building for a while now. The angles are tricky, the working space is limited, the light is complicated. I’m still not convinced that I have it, so this is one of my “thinking out loud” photographs which may turn out to be practice for other photographs that I eventually make here.

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Detail, Contemporary Jewish Museum

Detail, Contemporary Jewish Museum

Detail, Contemporary Jewish Museum. San Francisco, California. August 18, 2009. © Copyright G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Detail of the Contemporary Jewish Museum, San Francisco, California.

I’ve been watching this structure since the time it was under construction, and I have frequently walked past it, thought about making photographs… and not quite been able to figure out what to do with the subject. The building is an intriguing and slightly confusing combination of old-style (not shown here) and rather modern architecture, and it is embedded in a visually busy location surrounded by tall buildings and an old Catholic church. I actually have some earlier photographs of this same portion of the building (though shot from a different angle) that I haven’t posted, as I’m still pondering how to handle them.

On this visit, during a long “photography walk” across a good portion of The City, I passed by here and was intrigued with the juxtaposition of stark angles and different colors and textures.

This photograph is not in the public domain. It may not be used on websites, blogs, or in any other media without explicit advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

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keywords: san francisco, california, usa, travel, scenic, urban, city, contemporary, jewish, museum, cube, blue, modern, art, culture, window, pattern, structure, architecture, building, tower, perspective, downtown, urban, new, design, shadow, texture, stock