All images from iStockphoto.
Founded in 2010 by Andrew and Mary Pilara, Pier 24 is a non-profit museum and exhibition space dedicated solely to photography. It’s a massive space in an historic building nestled right below the Bay Bridge, and I have somehow managed to ignore it for the last ten years of living in San Francisco. A terrible mistake. This place is amazing.
Admission is free, by appointment. (Do it. Make an appointment. NOW.) The by-appointment bit makes for an open, airy, and quiet space free of the rather opressive crowds you can run into at other Bay Area museums. Here, you can spend as long as you like contemplating art and stroking your chin thoughtfully. Each appointment lasts two hours, so you can really get in there with that chin-stroking. For reals.
Anywho, earlier this week I headed on down to see Pier 24’s current exhibit The Grain of the Present, featuring ten photographers at the heart of the Pilara Foundation collection – Robert Adams, Diane Arbus, Lewis Baltz, Bernd and Hill Becher, Lee Friedlander, Nicholas Nixon, Stephen Shore, Henrey Wessel, and Garry Winograd – plus the work of six contemporary photographers: Eamonn Doyle, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Ed Panar, Alec Soth, Awoiska can der Molen, and Vanessa Winship.
Behind the cut, a whole slew of my favorite images from the exhibit.
Fun Fact: The pokey things on a caterpillar’s head are not “antlers.” #themoreyouknow
At work, we’re producing a series of videos profiling local nonprofit organizations. Over the last week, I’ve had the opportunity to go behind the scenes at the video shoots, spending some quality time with a few of the featured organizations.
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San Francisco Animal Care & Control is San Francisco’s “only open door animal shelter that accepts any animal – in any condition – of any temperament. SF ACC is responsible for the City’s stray, injured, abandoned, neglected and mistreated animals – of all species – and wildlife. All varieties of animals are available for adoption daily.”
The company I work for had a community service day recently. We spent a morning pulling weeds on Hawk Hill in Marin. If you have to do community service, there are far worse places you could be.
Last week, our company had a team-building afternoon consisting in a mission-based scavenger hunt that took us all over San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood. It was a long, hot day full of not entirely welcome silliness, but, truth be told: there were some pretty enjoyable moments. My favorite is shown in the images below. Our team (Team Razoo Dazzle!) was asked to depict ourselves in our best possible and worst possible moments as captured by the paparazzi.
At our best.
That’s right. Loving life.
At our worst.
I honestly think we should have won the game on the strength of these pictures alone.
I feel tremendously fortunate to have been behind the camera for these pictures, and think the world of my teammates for their commitment to the project: Hillel face planted in some playground sand. Kids pee in that stuff. You, sir, are a gentleman and a scholar.
At the Musée Mecanique.
A Bee's Life 