black and white

Portrait of a Chinatown Pop-up Grocer

 

Chinatown Pop-up Grocer (Chinatown Hustle Series), Oakland CA, Fall 2016.

 

Oakland’s Chinatown is all about getting a bargain on fresh food. Close enough to the Port of Oakland and Oakland’s central produce market, you can’t beat the prices on fresh greens, pork, poultry, or fresh sea food (from cat fish to eel).

Lately I have been preoccupied, pondering why photography seems to gravitate to these ethnic enclaves.  One can read Chinatown photographs as a kind of internal travel photography that at some level objectifies the subjects it captures.   Weary of enacting the colonial gaze, I battle with my desire to shoot as an outsider.

This shot illustrates the anxiety I articulate above because I wanted to make a portrait of this friendly pop-up fruit seller as she seemed friendly enough but every time I pointed that lens at her she raised her hand as if saying hello, but blocking her face on purpose.  After the fourth click I realized that was the shot: her clean, tidy fruit set up waiting for the next customer to sell her handful of goods. I like the shot because it was clear it was ok for me to take the shot, but it needed to be done on her terms, stripping away the power of the camera and a potential colonial gaze.

I began this series because more and more, this corner of Oakland is becoming dear to me and I fear that it is only a matter of time before the sea-change that is rapidly transforming the cityscape also claims Chinatown for the sake if new luxury development.  It’s only a matter of time, thus the Chinatown Hustle series seeks to document its working life and people.

 

–JMG

21st Century Stockings (Diptych)

 

21st Century Stockings II (Diptych), Summer 2014, Oakland CA

The title I gave this shot reaches back to a series of photographs Dorothea Lange made during the Great Depression.  Depicting women wearing mended stocking, Lange thought these shots said much about the time in which they were made.  Her subject was the way the femininity responded to the shortcoming of the economy.

This shot is more about women’s empowerment in the 21st Century and their ability define themselves (even in eyebrow raising ways).  The value of the shot isn’t so much in the expression it caught on the frame, but rather in the way the picture allows us to reflect on how much things have changed.

If you need to be reminded or see for yourself, here is a link to one of the mended stockings shots by Lange: www.mocp.org/detail.php?t=objects&type=group&f=&a….  After that shot you might want to say about the shot above, “Those aren’t your grandma’s stockings!”

–JMG

Portrait of a Bay Area Freedom Fighter

Portrait of an Bay Area Freedom Fighter, Oakland CA, Summer 2016.

Oakland has a long, deep tradition of activism. From the Black Panthers to the Black Block of the occupy movement to the most recent Black Lives Matters movement,

strong advocates for common humanity make Oakland home. As an observer of the city’s movements for the last decade, Pancho stands out as a figure reminiscent of Mario Salvio who doesn’t hold back to speak truth to power. He carries a flag imprinted with a globe because universal human rights is his cause.

On this day he was happy to meet Bobby Seale, who graciously granted I take a portrait of them together. I meant for this shot to have historical significance as it shows the penthouse that Huey P. Newton lived at when we was finally exonerated from attempt of murder charges in his infamous 1968 case.

Pancho reminds me of one of those prophets in Biblical time whose commitment to truth and justice defines his conviction to refuse excess, rely on the bare essentials to finds rightiousness.  I love that the camera reveals these figures to me as I realize that without it I would miss the Ghaindi’s and King’s around me.

–JMG

White Silence Is Violence

White Violence is Silence (Black Lives Matters Series), Oakland CA, Summer 2016.

A white majority made itself heard last week in the U.S. putting its support behind a candidate that promises to keep his bigoted, White-nationalist, Islamophobic promises.

This shot (taken this summer the day after Alton Brown murder) signals irony and impossibility given the recent turn of events in the Presidential election.  Irony lies behind the predictions and poll models that were confident most Americans would make an ethical choice.  The impossibility of being trapped between White silence and the White rural vote for the next four years leaves many of us with nothing but disappointment because making America great never includes making room for folks of color.

Sorry Langston, we are still having to fight for our place on the table.

***See more of my Black Lives Matter Series in my galleries section.***

–JMG

Cheap Thrills

 

Cheap Thrills IV (Sequence Series), Oakland CA, Summer 2016.

It’s amazing how much fun a kid can have with a hill and a bit of space to run on.

I like how the only person aware of the lens happens to be kind of shy, yet friendly. We can’t tell if the mother is totally unaware or if she is also totally enjoying the cheap thrills being had just above her.

I happened to be moving around this day from an estuary clean-up to a visit to an Outdoor Afro program out on Oakland’s Lake Merritt when I saw the kids taking turns making a roller coaster out of the steep ground. Covering this much ground yields little gems like this.

— JMG

OLYMPUS MIRORLESS DIGITAL, M5 (ISO 200 / f.5.6 / 1/4000)

Waiting

Waiting, Oakland CA, Summer 2016.

Some say bus stops are excellent spaces to photograph people in their urban environment. The Bay Area has ferry stops too.

Like bus stops, waiting for the next one forces riders to slow down. If you look close enough, you’ll notice that waiting can turn into a siesta sometimes. Who needs a bed when you have grassy shade to nap on?

— JMG

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA, ISO 100/ 1/640 / f. 11

Last Call in Oakland (Diptych)

Last Call In Oakland, Oakland CA, Winter 2015.

There’s a bar in Oakland (which I won’t mention by name here to keep it out of the wrong ears) that has a fun tradition where the bartenders light the bar on fire when they make the last call for drinks.  It’s places like this that have shifted the tide in night life in Oakland.

Being a transplant from Los Angeles, I too went through the phase where I thought I had to go to “the city” (a.k.a San Francisco) to find down-to-earth, unpolished, almost grimy joints where unique progressive folk of all classes gather for a drink.  If that’s what you are looking for and live in or near Oakland you can join me in saying, “Forget San Francisco!”  Seriously,  its been months since I’ve felt the need to dip into the coolness of the city because Oakland IS where it’s at.   If this shot doesn’t convince you of the fact that Oakland is hot and the place to be in the Bay Area, take a walk in Uptown Oakland (on Telegraph Ave.) any given Friday Night and see for yourself.

I can’t celebrate the freshness and dynamic energy I have encountered out in Oakland nights without making a second observation lamenting the underside of the first. And that that this shot also signals another kind of last call for Oakland. For many who grew up in Oakland and the East Bay in general know that it’s been the home for communities of color who could not  afford to live in San Francisco.  Oakland’s recent renaissance has pushed large segments of communities of color out the last four years. Things are at a critical point if you appreciate property maps that illustrate neighborhood foreclosure rates.

If you happen upon this place before the buffers and homogenous modern design floods out the fun, dynamic, colorful vibe Oakland nights have to offer, look around and ask yourself whose missing as we further into the last days of Oakland as we know it.

–JMG

HTC One M8 (cell phone camera, f. 2.0/ 1/30 / ISO 125)

The Magic Carpets of Town Park

Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.
Untitled, Oakland CA, Fall 2016.

Oakland’s Defremery Park has a special place in Oakland history because of the role it played in the late 60s to convene Oakland’s black community in defense of Huey P. Newton when he was charged for the murder of a police officer.  Town Park’s history is relatively recent but the spirit of the Black Panthers struggles for equal protection and civic participation is not lost since the funds to build out Town Park were raised by and for the West Oakland community.  Empowering projects like this are remarkable because they also empower those who both work on and benefit from opening public space.

Taken during one of Oakland’s most meaningful, community driven festivals, Life Is Living, this set captures the dynamic energy and form.    Beside the main stage, good food, and healthy, balanced living theme, I often visit to see the Extreme sports that go on in a section of Defremery Park known as Town Park.  In true gonzo photography fashion, what the camera froze on frame shows that the lens is an active participant in the way subject’s act and react in front of it.  I went of my way to publish some of these because it was evident the young men in them went out of their way to give me fabulous shots.  I was very appreciative of their “hard skating” and the way they tolerated an intruding eye as they glide and bust tricks on their magic carpets.

–JMG

Eastward Wind

Eastward Wind (4 Embarcadero Center), San Francisco CA, Spring 2015.

 

Totally processed, noisy, and shot from my cell phone, the frame stands because there’s something interesting about how the Eastward wind unfurls the flag as it’s flooded with light. Scenes like this interest me because they show how symbol and structure coalesce.

Those who look closely might find a strong resemblance in this flag to the one planted on the moon by the first Apollo mission. Our lives are so entwined and predicated by ever present patriotism that we often forget that staking flags like this are often acts of domination and statements of power. In this shot concrete and cloth coalesce in a gritty way to draw out the ambivalence of American power, from the colonial period to the post-Industrial present. Depending on where you stand in relation to the colonial difference, one will ether feel pride or disdain when encountering scenes like this.

— JMG

Holding Back Desire

Desire, Oakland CA, Summer 2016.

Oakland’s regular Friday Nights party draws out my photographic sensibility because there is a range of emotions it opens to capture with a camera. The outdoor amphitheater always challenges my technical skills as I like to shoot low light situations without flash.

This shot says tons about desire self control. It reflects the internal conversation we must have to not act on what we most want. That observation is most evident in the subject’s gaze into the wand. Holding back desire can also be read into the background. I think many would agree an interesting kind of tension is present when one encounters a fabulous dance partner.  In those rare cases, one has to hold back desire to actually get on with the dancing.

–JMG