Tag Archives: trash

Photographs: Night, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Three Women, Grant Street

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Three Women, Grant Street
Three women stand in front of a Grant Street storefront at night, San Francisco.

Three Women, Grant Street. © Copyright 2021 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Three women stand in front of a Grant Street storefront at night, San Francisco.

At this point I’m not sure I recall the exact circumstances that had me in this part of San Francisco after dark, but from the group of photographs that I have in my archive I can tell that I had made my way to the Chinatown district by evening, and after photographing there headed south past the Moscone Center, all of which suggests I had gone up there and back on the train. Taking the train to San Francisco for a day of street photography has long been a favorite activity, though I think it has now been about two years since the last attempt, aside from a few brief forays when I was up there this past fall for a couple of shows.

This San Francisco district, and others like it, are great places to photograph after dark, especially if you can work quickly, in street photography style, using a small handheld camera. There is often a fair amount of light from the combined sources of street lights, passing traffic, and the often-colorful lights spilling from commercial storefronts. With a small camera, especially at night, I can photograph without being so obvious that I intrude on the scene myself. One theme in my night street photography is people doing seemingly unusual things in a very normal human fashion. This appears to be a group of three friends passing through this area, but pausing to look in an unusual direction for just a moment.

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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Photographs: Night, Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Open Door and Stairway, Night

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Open Door and Stairway, Night
The entrance to someone’s home, San Francisco.

Open Door and Stairway, Night. © Copyright 2015 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

The entrance to someone’s home, San Francisco.

Originally I contemplated adding this to the “Postcards From Pandemic” series — the mood and subject seem about right. In the end I did not, since I’ve decided that those photographs will all be made during the lock-down and whatever follows. This photograph is almost five years old.

There is, for me, a lot to ponder in this photograph. Let’s start with the obvious — it is not a pretty picture. Despite the fact that the scene is so gritty, I was attracted by the colors, textures, and all that stuff, apart from the underlying reality of the scene. But, obviously, we have to ask some questions about a scene like this: Who lives here? What must it be like to enter your home through such a portal?

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 and Amazon.

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Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Purple, Green, Blue, And Red

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Purple, Green, Blue, And Red
Objects along the sidewalk, San Francisco

Purple, Green, Blue, And Red. © Copyright 2019 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Objects along the sidewalk, San Francisco.

Given its title, it should be obvious that this photograph is, at least in part, about the colors I found in this little downtown San Francisco scene. The specific location probably isn’t too important, though it is a central city area that is not one of great wealth and privilege, but which is perhaps under some pressure from the developmental forces currently bringing radical changes to the qualities that made this city famous.

Sometimes I just make photographs without analyzing too much, and you could look at a photograph like this in much the same way. But sometimes I do ask myself questions, such as “Why would I want to photograph something like this?” The answer is too complex for a two-paragraph web post — and I’m not sure that I know the complete answer — but I do know that I’m looking for order relationships among things that might not be objectively related. (Here those elements include the conjunctions of color and objects.) I’m also, I think, trying to see things for “what else they might be.”

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 and Amazon.

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Links to Articles, Sales and Licensing, my Sierra Nevada Fall Color book, Contact Information.

All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.

Photographs: San Francisco, Photographs: Urban/Street

Consumption

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Consumption
Pile of trash piled on the sidewalk in front of upscale shops in San Francisco

Consumption. © Copyright 2018 G Dan Mitchell – all rights reserved.

Pile of trash piled on the sidewalk in front of upscale shops in San Francisco

Yesterday we drove down to Carmel for the opening reception of the Center for Photographic Art 2018 Members’ Juried Exhibition. (One of my photographs is in the show.) The show is really beautiful, and it includes one of the most consistently high quality photographs of such shows that I’ve seen. I can be a bit of a critic at exhibits (though usually quietly…), but the work in this show is of high quality both aesthetically and technically. If you are in the Carmel area between now and early August, I urge you to visit!

But what does that have to do with this photograph? As photographers we often tend to work in silos defined, at least partially, by our own stylistic preferences and by the notions of others about the style/genre of our own work. Talk to enough photographers and you’ll almost always find that landscape photographers aren’t just landscape photographers, portrait photographers aren’t just portrait photographers, photo-journalists aren’t just interested in photographing events, and so on. (There is sometimes a bit of frustration on the part of photographers who feel that their work has been too tightly pigeon-holed.) This isn’t just about photographers — it also applies to those who love to view photographic art. It is very much worth the effort to step outside of your comfort zone, look at and try to make sense of photography that deals with subjects that may not be your favorites. There is a lot more to say about this, but I’ll stop here — after all, this is just another daily photo post! ;-)

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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 and Amazon.
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All media © Copyright G Dan Mitchell and others as indicated. Any use requires advance permission from G Dan Mitchell.