Don't Call It frisco...

Well, it’s officially on the wall and out in the world. Twenty-seven of my original prints are on display at Waystone in North Beach from July 15th to mid September. Comprised entirely of images made on the streets of San Francisco, the work represents essentially 20 years of me wasting time, wandering around The City, fiddling about with a camera. And while this is just a small sample of the images I’ve made around town, it definitely represents the images that I’m closest to personally. At the end of the day, it’s all pretty autobiographical.

For me the camera has always been an excuse to be out in the world. I’m no go-getter, rarely a participant, typically on the sidelines, not here to hustle, certainly in no hurry, I’ve spent my life on the periphery, just sort of taking it in. I’m a chronic observer, often to my detriment. The camera is the justification, the photographs are the record.

Either way, if you’re in The City, come by and take a look. I’ll be throwing a little opening party on July the 27th, Waystone in North Beach, 1609 Powell Street at Green, 7pm. There’ll be live music, libations, and a bunch of old photographs from the greatest city in the world, Baghdad by the Bay, Fog City, SF, The City by The Bay, Old San Francisco. Just please, don’t call it Frisco…

For a larger take of the work on display, visit josephszymanski.com/san-francisco

As always, for prints, visit the shop, and please don’t hesitate to reach out for custom sizes, etc.

So I've Been Busy...

I decided, at some point, a few months back now, that it was time to start printing. After all, I’ve always said that a photograph isn’t finished until you put in on paper. The vast majority of my work has never existed beyond the negative, and is never really seen outside of the digital world. This bores me terribly.

It also occurred to me that I’m sitting on an archive of images from San Francisco, some of which I think are pretty ok, spanning almost 25 years and it was time to do something.

So I’ve been locked in the darkroom, printing old street pictures from the last couple decades. It’s reminded me why I’ve stuck with analog materials all these years, I enjoy the process, I love making things with my hands, and I much prefer the idea that a photograph is a three dimensional object that you can hold and hang on a wall and give away, rather than the digital dust they’ve become.

I’ll be hanging some work in July in San Francisco, details to come, hopefully a dry run to something larger. If nothing else, it’ll be a wild party with a bunch of old pictures to look at, could be worse...

In other news, I made a stack of postcards in the darkroom on a whim. Shoot me an email if you want one in the mail. I love mailing stuff, it’s a thing, I can’t explain it.

Notes From The West Bank, 20 Years On...

Village of Dir Ibziya, outside Ramallah, The West Bank, July of 2002.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the time I spent in the West Bank so many years ago. Seems like another lifetime ago, probably because it was. So much has changed, and then again, so little has.

Twenty years ago I was naive kid with a camera who thought he had a decent handle on the way things work in the world who very abruptly discovered that was not in fact the case.

I won't pretend that I don't have opinions. I certainly don't have any answers, that I’m sure of. The death toll is nothing short of catastrophic. What really blows me away is the kids in these photographs are now older than I was when I made them. And here we are, still at it.

Resale Value Is A Scam...

I was wandering around the Castro, as I sometimes do, carrying my old Leica M2, as I almost always do. It’s what you might call a “user” camera. She’s got miles on her, built in 1962, acquired by me in San Francisco around 2008. I’ve got a Zeiss 35mm that basically never comes off on the front. It’s modded up and marked up with a white paint marker for zone focusing and aperture. It’s dirty and scratched and beat up and I love it.

It’s also a bit of a conversation starter, especially for the gear heads chasing the latest equipment that haunt the City. So it gave me a little chuckle the other day, when some kid strapped with the latest Sony A7 and some massive lens that looks like a howitzer struck up a conversation. He asked me what it was, and I told him. He asked me what I’d done to it, and I told him. Then he says, without any hesitation whatsoever, “man, you totally killed your resale value.” I laughed and told him they’d probably bury me with it.

For what it’s worth, here’s what I’m carrying…

Leica M2, built around 1962. Modified shutter dial and film counter. Aftermarket quick rewind crank. Original vulcanite replaced with grip-tac. Carl Zeiss Zm 35mm f/2.8 Biogon.

Leica M3, built in 1959, aftermarket quick rewind crank, original vulcanite replaced with grip-tac, Voigtlander 28mm accessory finder. Sporting either a Carl Zeiss ZM 50mm f/1.5 Sonnar or a 28mm f/2.8 Biogon.

Hasselblad X-Pan, build around 1999 / 2000. On the front is usually a Hasselblad 45mm f/4 lens, sometimes I use a Fuji 90mm f/4. The camera shoots a full panoramic 35mm frame as well as a standard 35mm frame, and can switch formats mid roll. Amazing little machine...

Not Dead Yet...

I was notified about a large spike in traffic to this website over the course of a few days a couple weeks back. I’m not talking server crashing volume, but significant, to say the least. I’ve been busy, not posting much of anything, sidetracked by summer and children and other obligations. Seemed strange that I should be seeing any traction online. After a bit of digging it wasn’t immediately apparent where the traffic was coming from; it wasn’t a link or some social media post or anything direct. With a little more research, I quickly determined that a fine art photographer based in Washington D.C., with a name very similar to mine, was killed in cold blood, and a bunch of the search traffic of his name ended up at my website.

C'est la vie. I suppose there is no such thing as bad publicity. My condolences to the family of Joe Shymanski.

Here is a photograph from Slovakia last summer, that does not necessarily prove that I am alive.

Still behind, as always, suffering from a perpetual backlog of unrealized photographs. Sitting on twelve roles of film from Paris in June. One day soon they’ll end up here….