Mixing Things Up
Dislocation-7 in “A Measure of Uncertainty” at SF’s Harvey Milk Photo Center, February 2026
There’s nothing like a political campaign to exacerbate our existential concerns. In the fall of 2024, I began work on Dislocated, a collection of 16 diptychs pairing environmental portraits with distressed urban settings. The project inspired me to try something new — rendering the diptychs in mixed media. I opted to print the portraits on plexiglass and display the backgrounds on metal (my preferred surface). The only question was how best to connect these disparate layers while accentuating the collage's effect.
As I prepared the images for my photo group’s exhibition, called A Measure of Uncertainty, at San Francisco’s Harvey Milk Photo Center through Feb. 21st, I explored various ways to present the layers. I tried magnets, but they didn’t separate the layers well. I tried edge standoffs to connect the layers, which worked, but they lacked the stability to withstand the rigors of a gallery show.
After evaluating these methods, I asked an expert framer (Orion in S.F.) to create a window box to securely hold and separate the layers. They made it possible to slide the plexiglass in the frame, which is fun, but, as I’ve learned, the plexi is sensitive to fingerprints.
Meanwhile, I want to congratulate my 21 amazing colleagues in the Bay Area Photography Collective (BAPC), who also have images in the show, which was superbly curated by Heather Snider. I also want to give a shoutout to Melissa Castro Keesor, the talented director of the Harvey Milk Photo Center. I hope you’ll check it out when you have time.
Metaphors of Recent Times at S.F. City Hall
Metaphors of Recent Times at S.F. City Hall through June 20th, 2025
Three “Of the Mission” portraits in PhotoAlliance’s “Metaphors of Recent Times” on view at S.F. City Hall January-June, 2025.
Step inside the Beaux-Arts masterpiece known as San Francisco City Hall and you’ll see newlyweds smiling and waiving for photographers on its dramatic grand staircase. Just steps away from the procession of brides and grooms, another type of photographic exhibition is underway. The San Francisco Arts Commission and PhotoAlliance are presenting Metaphors of Recent Times: A Dialogue of the Personal, the Political and the Cultural.
This group photography exhibition features “incisive visual perspectives from artists of diverse identities and background, each responding to the issues of our times.” Each artist contributes a triptych—three images that highlight one of many impactful socio-political themes.
I am thrilled to be one of the 24 artists selected for this group photography show. The curators, Lewis Watts, Beth Davila Waldman, and Linda Connor selected three images from my recent “Of the Mission | de la Misión” series: Maria, Febe and Rose. My images, featuring a selection of people who live or work in San Francisco’s Mission District, depict life in ways that words alone cannot express.
The show features work by Pablo Tapay Bautista, Renee Billingslea, Barbara Boissevain, Kennedi Carter, Mima Cataldo, Yu-Chen Chiu, Katie Cofer, Mark Coggins, Izzy Cosentino, Kelly Fogel, David Gardner, Stuart Goldstein, Christine Huhn, Judi Iranyi, Anni Lopponen, Darcy Padilla, Eric Robertson, Lance Shields, Nina Sidneva, William Mark Sommer, Liz Steketee, myself, and Harry Williams. I enjoyed meeting a many of these talented artists at the opening reception on January 16th.
Metaphors is on view at City Hall’s Ground Floor and North Light Court until August 1st, 2025.
What's Clicking Now?
Lisa, from Of the Mission
If you live in San Francisco the odds are you’re sick of hearing the oft-repeated but fictitious quip about the coldest winter Mark Twain ever spent. As I look out my window in the Mission District, in August, the sky is 95% white, a mix of haze and stratus clouds with a hint of blue. There’s just enough cloud cover to qualify as a good day for a photo walk.
That said, I’ll write this post instead, because it’s way overdue, and I have a bit of news to share. (I’ll update this post as other things happen this year.)
On November 23rd, “Stand In,” a diptych from my series Night Work, appears in my photo group’s exhibition, called Night Vision, at Oakland’s Transmission Gallery. The images feature the highly engaging Christine Lee, a circus performer, during a burlesque show at San Francisco’s DNA Lounge
On November 21st, Human Presence: Faces, Figures, Crowds, opens at the Belvedere-Tiburon Library in Marin. My portrait, Karla, from Of the Mission, is one of more than 70 images on view. The group show runs until Jan. 8th, 2025.
On November 14th, my first solo show de la Misión opened at the Mission Bowling Club on 17th Street in San Francisco. It was a wonderful experience and I’m really grateful to everyone who came to the party, including some of the portrait participants, the ArtSpan team, and the MBC crew. The show which includes eight Of the Mission portraits runs until April 7th, 2025. Let’s arrange to meet there.
In October, “Big Beautiful Wall,” a diptych I shot in April in Eagle Pass, Texas, will be exhibited at Porto Vecchio during Trieste Photo Days, in Trieste, Italy. The image, also selected for a book called The Double City, depicts an unfinished border wall along the Rio Grande in Texas.
In late September, I participated in my first San Francisco Open Studios. It happened on September 28th and 29th at Upside Art in the Mission District. It was be a fun scene with art, food and drink. I had numerous pieces on display, both framed and unframed. There was lots of dynamic work by contemporary artists and I enjoyed making lots of new friends there!
In August, the image Lisa from my series Of the Mission was juried into a group show called “21st Century Portraits” by L.A. Photo Curator. The image from my Mission portrait series received an Honorable Mention by the jurors, Michael Rababy of Hive Gallery in Los Angeles, and James Payne, a photographer. My thanks to the jurors.
In July, the image Ingrid from my series Of the Mission was juried into a group show called The Photo Review International Photography Competition. The portrait of a Mission resident was selected by the juror Joel Smith, the Richard L. Menschel Curator and Department Head in Photography at the Morgan Library & Museum in New York. It marks the third image of mine selected by the Photo Review - the first ran in 2018. (Joel’s are cool.)
In April, several images from my Unnatural World series — Valley/Burn and Hills/Graffiti — were selected for an Artspan show called “Landscapes: Real and Imagined.” The exhibition at the Mission Bowling Club (yes, a real bowling alley) included a fun reception on June 25th — ending just after Labor Day.