I discovered Chinatown on one of my walks through the streets of San Francisco. The diversity of people, sights, sounds, and smells inspired me to create this book. Over the course of three years, I returned to Chinatown many times walking up & down it’s narrow streets in search of the next shot. The images here feature the scenes that caught my eye during my exploration. An elderly woman doing Tai Chi in the morning. A man walking with his rainbow colored umbrella through an alley way. A colorful dragon moving about in the streets. A lonely man passing time sitting on a bench, staring into the distance. The photos in this book are about people, their movements, & stillness, framed within the streets of Chinatown. Each image is the doorway to a story that we may never know, it’s the idea that beauty and form can be anywhere. This collection of photos serves that idea.
My work with photography is influenced by my background in documentary filmmaking. I’ve always enjoyed documenting people and telling their stories through a visual medium. Street photography gave me the freedom to move about and capture life in an urban setting. I felt alive there with my camera, the movement brought about ideas and my vision became clear. I often would wonder what someone’s life was like as I passed them by. A photograph can capture these moments of passing, reminding us that there is a story behind every face. The photography in “Footsteps to Chinatown” and my work in a broad sense reflects my passion for understanding and documenting people. My work continues to evolve & this book is another chapter in that evolution.
Dirty Doorways is a photographic documentation on graffiti and grit covered doorways. The project captures the artistry of graffiti in relationship to the doorway and architectural style around it. Each doorway is covered with different textures, patterns, and colors that attract the eye. The layers of graffiti and tags create a collage of styles and the doorway frame provides the perfect canvas for the street artist to make their mark.
It was the architecture, graffiti, and familiar tags that inspired me to do this project. I fell in love with finding new doorways, and I wanted to capture them before they were gone, often being painted over by building owners and anti-graffiti forces. The photos were taken in New York City and San Francisco from 2004 to 2008. The project stands as an archive for those who enjoy and appreciate urban culture and expression.
