Lost/Remains
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Alone, Ambiguity, Desire, Desperation, Distance, Dreams, Faded, Failure, Fear, Focus, Forgotten, Ghosts, Glance, Identity, Intimacy, Interaction, Invisibility, Juxtaposition, Lost, Memory, Mystery, Narrative, Nightmare, Overlooked, Perception, Personal, Perspective, Psychology, Relationship, Remains, Secret, Shadow, Strangers, Street, Subversive, Uncertainty, Urban, Viewed, Viewer, Viewpoint, Vision, Voice. |
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The National Coalition of the Homeless reports 578,424 homeless in the United States. (2014)
San Francisco Billionaires: 20 (Source: SF Examiner 2015)
One in four residents of San Francisco lives at or below the poverty line. (Source: SFGate.com 2015)
San Francisco is a city where rental apartments cost more than NYC and while it is the epicenter for technology and tech wealth it is also at the top of the list for income disparity in America. San Francisco's poverty rate is at 28% of a population of over 837,000 people. (Source: SF Examiner 2015)
Photographer Dorothea Lange in 1933 walked down the stairs from her upscale, Montgomery Street portrait studio in San Francisco and stepped out onto the streets of the city in the midst of the Great Depression. One of the first images she took was of a depression era man, bundled up, holding a tin cup while waiting in a breadline, huddled within a crowd of other men. (White Angel Breadline, San Francisco 1933)
Thus began her foray into photographing the struggle of men and families during one of the darkest times the United States has faced, the Great Depression. Robert Adams has said of her work that Lange's subjects were "the beauty of the world, and the courage it takes to survive in it." (Source: Why People Photograph by Robert Adams, pages 120-121)
Now over eighty years later and with the Great Recession of 2008 San Francisco a city struggling, this time with extreme wealth and income inequality. Evictions are allowing rents to double even triple in price. The tech boom after the dot com bust has pushed the city into a battle of growth, expansion, and luxury against that of trying to save the essence and soul of the city and what San Francisco represents for many, a vision that includes the free spirits of all types of people be they wealthy or poor.
There is a nostalgia or golden age image the city has that is often colored more by emotion than facts. San Francisco has been referred to as the Paris of the West. The romantic Golden Gate Bridge is a symbol of the greatness of the city, but it is also the place for the most number of suicide jumpers in the United States. The spell of the 1950’s and 60’s Beats Generation, Flower Children, and Haight Ashbury Hippies hangs on to this day, casting a fog like spell on the city where all types of humanity are welcome to be who they are.
In 2014 I stepped out my front door and into the Castro District of San Francisco. The vast majority of images I have been taking are within about a four block radius, many within just a block or two. The Castro is going through dramatic changes like the city is as a whole. It struggles to grow as businesses fail due to high rents while high end tech buses line up to cart workers off to Silicon Valley. Meanwhile many people are struggling to just get through the day.
There was a very brief moment in my past life where I found myself living and sleeping on the street. Thankfully, it was only a few nights. I was fortunate to be able to make the changes needed to quickly get off the street. It was a horrible, terrifying, and lonely time.
What does it feel like to be seen but not acknowledged, an invisible spirit stuck in limbo? There is a veil of existence that floats between those less fortunate and struggling in some way or another and those who are able to simply go about their daily routines. Separate worlds and realms that exist simultaneously.
What is lost and what remains?
Do you look or not?
Do you glance out of the corner of your eye?
Do you acknowledge or avoid?
That could be you or someone you knew, because it was me.
Dennis Neal Vaughn
images: archival pigment prints on archival paper, Landscapes are faux tintypes.
image sizes: 7" x 7" and 10" x 7.5"
paper size: 8.5" x 11"
San Francisco Billionaires: 20 (Source: SF Examiner 2015)
One in four residents of San Francisco lives at or below the poverty line. (Source: SFGate.com 2015)
San Francisco is a city where rental apartments cost more than NYC and while it is the epicenter for technology and tech wealth it is also at the top of the list for income disparity in America. San Francisco's poverty rate is at 28% of a population of over 837,000 people. (Source: SF Examiner 2015)
Photographer Dorothea Lange in 1933 walked down the stairs from her upscale, Montgomery Street portrait studio in San Francisco and stepped out onto the streets of the city in the midst of the Great Depression. One of the first images she took was of a depression era man, bundled up, holding a tin cup while waiting in a breadline, huddled within a crowd of other men. (White Angel Breadline, San Francisco 1933)
Thus began her foray into photographing the struggle of men and families during one of the darkest times the United States has faced, the Great Depression. Robert Adams has said of her work that Lange's subjects were "the beauty of the world, and the courage it takes to survive in it." (Source: Why People Photograph by Robert Adams, pages 120-121)
Now over eighty years later and with the Great Recession of 2008 San Francisco a city struggling, this time with extreme wealth and income inequality. Evictions are allowing rents to double even triple in price. The tech boom after the dot com bust has pushed the city into a battle of growth, expansion, and luxury against that of trying to save the essence and soul of the city and what San Francisco represents for many, a vision that includes the free spirits of all types of people be they wealthy or poor.
There is a nostalgia or golden age image the city has that is often colored more by emotion than facts. San Francisco has been referred to as the Paris of the West. The romantic Golden Gate Bridge is a symbol of the greatness of the city, but it is also the place for the most number of suicide jumpers in the United States. The spell of the 1950’s and 60’s Beats Generation, Flower Children, and Haight Ashbury Hippies hangs on to this day, casting a fog like spell on the city where all types of humanity are welcome to be who they are.
In 2014 I stepped out my front door and into the Castro District of San Francisco. The vast majority of images I have been taking are within about a four block radius, many within just a block or two. The Castro is going through dramatic changes like the city is as a whole. It struggles to grow as businesses fail due to high rents while high end tech buses line up to cart workers off to Silicon Valley. Meanwhile many people are struggling to just get through the day.
There was a very brief moment in my past life where I found myself living and sleeping on the street. Thankfully, it was only a few nights. I was fortunate to be able to make the changes needed to quickly get off the street. It was a horrible, terrifying, and lonely time.
What does it feel like to be seen but not acknowledged, an invisible spirit stuck in limbo? There is a veil of existence that floats between those less fortunate and struggling in some way or another and those who are able to simply go about their daily routines. Separate worlds and realms that exist simultaneously.
What is lost and what remains?
Do you look or not?
Do you glance out of the corner of your eye?
Do you acknowledge or avoid?
That could be you or someone you knew, because it was me.
Dennis Neal Vaughn
images: archival pigment prints on archival paper, Landscapes are faux tintypes.
image sizes: 7" x 7" and 10" x 7.5"
paper size: 8.5" x 11"