Mid-Market - Word On The Street

Mid-Market Street seems the epitome of haves and have nots, home to Twitter, staggering poverty, open air drug markets, 5 dollar espresso and Burger King. If you want to see gentrification in motion, take a walk down Market between 5th and Van Ness.

#0435_35A - Street Performer, Mid-Market Street. San Francisco, CA. March 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

#0435_29A - Drinking Man, Mid-Market Street. San Francisco, CA. March 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

#0435_28A - Liquor Store, Mid-Market Street. San Francisco, CA. March of 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

#0435_30A - Drug Deal & Dog, Mid-Market Street. San Francisco, CA. March 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

#0435_34A - Man In Wheelchair, Mid-Market Street. San Francisco, CA. March 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

The collision of moneyed tech workers with poor neighborhoods in San Francisco continues to change the city in staggering ways. It's easy to blame the industry, but it seems more an accelerant and less a cause. Tent cities are popping up everywhere, people just don't have any place to go. I've lived here for 17 years and I've never seen it this bad.

I take it for granted, every night, I come home to my family, we have a wonderful old house in a good neighborhood that cost a small fortune. Out of reach for the vast majority of residents in this city. Housing has got to be the single biggest issue in San Francisco, hands down, with absolutely no solution in sight.

Freya On Film

Last few takes from a recent shoot with Freya Gallows, March of 2016. San Francisco, California. Looking forward to printing a few of these in the darkroom, watch for a print release soon.

#0439_37 - Freya, 2016. Voigtlander R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125

#0438_04A - Freya, 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilfrod FP4 125

#0441_05A - Freya, 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400

#0441_11A - Freya, 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400

#0438_36A - Freya, 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125

#0439_27 - Freya, 2016. Voigtlander R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125.

Dabblings In Color

#0445_27A - Montgomery Station, San Francisco, CA. April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Kodak Portra 400.

I rarely if ever work in color beyond the obligatory digital testing in the studio. However, recently for whatever reason I've just sort of felt the urge run a few rolls of color negative film through the cameras.

It's a stretch to say the least, I have a difficult time seeing in color, I find it a distraction more often than not, difficult to control. My wife makes fun of me, thinks I'm color blind. I'm not, for the record.

#0445_08A - Mid Market Street. San Francisco, CA. April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Kodak Portra 400.

Burned a few rolls of color film in the studio as well, have yet to sort through them, but will post a selection once I have the chance. Not sure if the switch is something I'll keep up with or not. May have been a fleeting fancy...

#0445_08A - Market Street. San Francisco, CA. April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Kodak Portra 400.

#0445_08A - Mid Market Street. San Francisco, CA. April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Kodak Portra 400.

This Thing Called Patreon

patreon.jpg

With my list of preoccupations growing, a few months back I essentially shut down the Patreon page that I was attempting to build up. On top of that, migrating my website to another host and switching platforms unexpectedly broke a bunch of the content I had posted previously on Patreon, which tells me two things...

One, Patreon is not a terribly complete platform as of yet and lacks a great deal of functionality (or, I don't actually know how to use it properly, both answers are equally probable.) I'm sure it will come around, they keeping adding new bells and whistles, it just has a ways to go yet.

Two, I've really been going about posting content on Patreon all wrong thus far (not to suggest I know the right way to go about it now, but I'm going to try something different.) So here's what's happening at the moment...

I've scrapped a great deal of the content that I had posted previously on Patreon; the extended takes, larger galleries from studio shoots, etc., have all been pulled, for a host of reasons, the two most important being most of that content was broken, and it would take me an exorbitant amount of time to fix it all.

A couple months ago I changed the release of paid posts / prints from a per month schedule to a per-release structure, meaning patrons are charged only when I release content. For the time being I'm going to keep things this way, however I may go back to a per month release at some point.

I'm going to continue to release regular updates going forward, process notes, some behind the scenes stuff here and there, etc. Long story short, I'm going to use Patreon predominantly to distribute prints on a regular basis to patrons from here on out. Prints will be released no more than once a month moving forward...

Check it out here... https://www.patreon.com/jszymanski

Print Release / Reward Tiers are as follows...

$10 per release: 4.25x5.5 inch digital proof print. Printed with Epson inks on Canson Fiber Rag paper, signed and dated on the back of the print.

$20 per release: 5x7 inch fiberbase proof print, hand made, signed and dated.

$40 per release: 8x10 inch fiberbase proof print, hand made, signed and dated.

$75 per release: 11x14 inch fiberbase master print, hand made, signed, dated and numbered. Selenium toned for permanence.

New Portraits, Spring 2016

Slowly making my way through the back log of film and scans that have been collecting dust for months and decided to pull a couple quick edits of portraits from a few shoots over the spring...

#0436_15A - Freya, March 2016 - Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

Had the chance to work with the infamous Freya Gallows (http://www.modelmayhem.com/533961) in March. She's riot to say the least. Effortlessly comfortable in front of the lens, she was a real pleasure to work with. Great hair too...

 #0438_01A - Freya, March 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.  

#0438_02A - Freya, March 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

#0443_28A - Freya, March 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400 film.

Caught up with Sarah (http://www.modelmayhem.com/sarahkathryn) in April, whom I've worked with here and there for years. Always fun shooting with her. Our sessions typically descend into stupidity and silliness fueled by either old Guns N' Roses albums or David Bowie or both...

#0448_04A - Sarah, April 2016. Voigtlander R3, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

#0447_34A - Sarah, April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford HP5 400 film.

#0449_20A - Sarah, April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

#449_28A - Sarah, April 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

Got to shoot with a new model, Alison Black (http://www.modelmayhem.com/3893322) in May. A sculptor from the Bay Area, it took us a minute to warm up and find a rhythm but once we did we got some great stuff... Also, great hair...

#0456_25 - Alison, May 2016. Voigtlander R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

#0456_20 - Alison, May 2016. Voigtlander R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

#0454_08 - Alison, May 2016. Voigtlander R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

#0454_29 - Alison, May 2016. Voigtlander R3m, 75mm f/2.5, Ilford FP4 125 film.

South Lake Tahoe...

Finally getting through some scans from way back in February. We took a quick run up to South Lake Tahoe for a long weekend. Ended up at this weird hotel bar in Reno, everyone in the place looked like they were on at least their 3rd marriage.

#0433_06A - Lake Tahoe, CA. February 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford HP5 400.

#0432_15A - Fallen Leaf Lake, CA. February 2016. Leica M2, Zeiss 35mm f/2, Ilford HP5 400.

#0433_18A - Fallen Leaf Lake, CA. February 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford HP5 400.

#0433_01A - Psychic, somewhere near Davis, CA. February 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford HP5 400.

The whole South Lake / Reno scene always struck me as a kind of a violent fusion of people who are way too into skiing, compulsive gamblers, white trash and a truly unique landscape. Not exactly my bag... I don't ski and never make a bet unless I know I can't lose. I've been called white trash, but it's been awhile. Anyway it's still pretty...

On the way up we stopped at this burrito shop in a strip mall off the freeway with a psychic nextdoor... how is this still a thing? And how is this a thing in a strip mall off the freeway outside Davis?

#0433_21A - The Wife. Reno, NV. February 2016. Leica M3, Zeiss 50mm f/1.5, Ilford HP5 400.

Big Red Reset Button

Some may have noticed (all four of you that actually follow me) that I've been posting very little the last several months. To say I've been overwhelmed would be the understatement of the century...

Last November (2015) we started remodeling the bottom floor of our house. My wife and I moved upstairs with my mother in law while large men with sledge hammers absolutely destroyed my kitchen and dining room. I'm convinced they actually used about a half dozen hand grenades to do the job.

In December my mother in law got sick and had to have several surgeries over the course of the next few months. Around March my wife began the process of changing jobs after working at the same clinic for six years. In April one of the contractors working on the house totally fucked us and set our project back several months in the process. And In May I broke both bones in my right leg playing hockey and had to have 2 plates and 9 screws put in my ankle, spending the next six weeks basically in bed eating Vicodin for breakfast, lunch and dinner, which is way less fun when you're actually in pain.

Yes, this is my ankle. No, it doesn't set off metal detectors.

So, let's just say I've been a little preoccupied...

We've recently moved back downstairs, my mother in law is doing well, my wife has started her new job and I've recently stopped using a cane to walk. Things are pretty good these days.

As such I've decided to do a bit of a reset with the way I'm putting things out online. I'm switching to a new web platform that should allow me to worry more about putting out content and less about running a website. I've decided to basically nuke my old web log. It's been running almost non-stop since 2008 or so, and just feels clunky and bloated and a bit like it's just content hoarding gone wrong. I'd like to pare things back considerably and focus more on quality, not quantity. 

It's a process for sure, there will be some hiccups along the way. For now I'm just migrating and editing down content. Stay tuned for new photographs, notes and other updates along the way. Looking forward to getting back to work...