Pete Brook: Changes right now in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, and all the surrounding spaces are rapid. As curators, [Rian] Dundon and I aren't necessarily putting a value judgement on the change, partly because we're in the middle of it, and partly because we don't know where it's headed. We do notice though that when changes ramp up, so do people's energies and anxieties.When everything is in flux, people rush to figure out if they're going to do well by the change or get left behind. Quickly people can find their camps among the "winners" or the "losers." But here in the Bay Area, most people are not the super rich or the very disadvantaged. What is the spectrum of our experience? Status Update is meant to be a moment to pause and reflect, maybe make some new connections between ideas and each other.Obviously, a lot of these changes are due to the disruption of tech money on the regional economy, on migrations, on housing stock, and on what communities feel should shift and what should stick around. That's the nod and the wink of the title Status Update. Status update is a term from social media and of virtual, immediate experience, but the show is about documentary projects that span back years.
The photographs had to be good. This is a photo show first and foremost. Catchlight's mission is to support committed photographers. Rian's a photographer himself and he's got a conscience. I've focused for years on what good photography can do. We are as interested in how stuff is made [as] what is made. We're saying to the Status Update audience, "This is what we value and you should take inspiration from these artists' motives and methods. If you do, you'll probably make good stuff too."
Talia Herman, Sonoma, Calif. Summer 2011
Almost. There's 14 artists. 12 of them live in the Bay Area. Sam Wolson lived here for years and documented one man Shannon Fulcher throughout (work that we present that work for the first time anywhere). Unfortunately, Sam won't see it. He just moved to Kenya to be with his love. Joseph Rodriguez, who shot the foreclosure crisis in the Bay Area, is New York based, but he's been photographing all over California for 20 years. His work feels local.It seems like the mystique of Silicon Valley, the global interest in the Bay Area, and its triumphs and troubles in recent years could serve as leverage to open conversations about issues that are more real and relevant to people around the country than startup culture and Google buses. How does the works' local-ness compare to the more global themes it touches on, wealth disparity and so on?
Sergio De La Torre, one of the artists in the show, said to us in our first meeting, "What happens in the Mission is indicative of what's happening in San Francisco, in California, in the states, the world. Inequalities are everywhere." From my own work looking at prisons and criminal justice, I know that crime rates are the highest in countries with the largest economic gap between rich and poor. De La Torre actually talks about the current situation as being the end of a cycle, as opposed to an undefined way-point on a long arc of change. I see his point, just as he sees power between the rich and poor on his very own street as a continuum of rich and poor across the NAFTA region. Economic strength is important, but not if it comes as the expense of some sections of society and not if it has permanent negative effects. We all want jobs, but we also want to have some choice about whether we stay in the neighborhood we call home.
Talia Herman, Sonoma, Calif. Winter 2012
Those were what we identified as the unifying themes. The change bit is obvious, right? And we wanted to showcase work that brought people from different experiences closer. Change only alienates if we let it. But we're not saps. We know that people are moving due to economic forces and we know resilience is proportional to means. Those with a bank balance have more choices. That's not controversial, that's fact. So inequality exists. But what is this change and inequality doing? Is it permanently altering and damaging our region? Or is it building something new, something better? Depends who you are, right? So we keep an open mind as curators.
Spark conversation that might lead to change. The artists in this show very perceptively shape fuller pictures of others' experiences. I'm still hedging my bets on the connection between images and empathy, and on empathy and behavior. I'm hoping that Laura Morton's work on young tech dreamers allays some of the vitriol pointed blindly at all those who work in the sector. I hope people are inspired by Pendarvis Harshaw's simple approach and go and ask others in their neighborhoods questions, to show an interest. I hope Brandon Tauszik's documentary GIFs encourage other creatives to think about subverting formats for social commentary. I hope that people will be moved by Robert Gumpert's audio interviews to a degree that they think of who's in our jails and prisons differently. I hope that Talia Herman's images reveal that nothing is quite as idyllic as it seems and that which is most real is always that which is before us. We just had elections here and in San Francisco, five of the ballot initiatives were about housing. It's the issue of the moment. We have to deal with it and we have to make a city that welcomes people up and down the economic spectrum.
From the series 'Faces of Foreclosure' by Joseph Rodriguez
There's no way one statement, one exhibition, one year could faithfully reflect the varied lives of residents in the Bay Area. In that sense Status Update is ephemeral. A status update is a tiny flag among billions thrown out into our shared digital space every day. It's a gesture, a marker, something others can grasp if they want. We want to take stock of the Bay Area. We want to take about images, but really we want to talk about us, and the places we call home.We also wanted to wrest control, albeit briefly, of a phrase associated with one of the biggest companies in the world and sit with the fact that Facebook, like the majority of other global tech firms, are based here. I'm no luddite or foil hat-wearing nutter, but the seamlessness with which technology jumps from corporation to device to pocket to behavior is, at times, alarming. We're only going to become more worked and networked. What is our agency in the face of era-defining change? And does that agency differ when you physically live in the shadow of the companies driving the change? Maybe, maybe not, but it's one hell of a conversation starter.What kind of workshops and conversations are going to take place beside the photos and videos throughout the three day exhibition?
The [San Francisco County] jail is just a couple of blocks away from the venue SOMArts. On the Saturday and Sunday morning, we're inviting friends and family who are visiting loved ones in the jail to come down to our place and have some free coffee and donuts. Robert Gumpert, whose portraits from the SF County Jails are in the show, will be there with a pop-up studio. People are invited to add to his decade long Take A Picture. Tell A Story. Concurrently, Gumpert is working on a new project that interviews San Francisco's homeless. They're invited to the gallery to speak truth to power, too.
Still from the animated GIF series, Tapered ThroneBrandon Tauszik
From the series Common Core in Silicon ValleyRian Dundon
From the series Common Core in Silicon ValleyRian Dundon
From the series Wild West TechLaura Morton
From the series Wild West TechLaura Morton
Anna Louisa Urbina. San Francisco County Jail 2. San Francisco, Calif.Robert Gumpert
Still from the animated GIF series, Tapered ThroneBrandon Tauszik
Still from the documentary short, Hotel 22Elizabeth Lo
Still from the documentary short, Hotel 22Elizabeth Lo
From the series OG Told MePendarvis Harshaw
From the series OG Told MePendarvis Harshaw
Erik Aburto. San Francisco County Jail 5. San Francisco, Calif.Robert Gumpert
From the series Occupy Bay AreaLily Chen
From the series Occupy Bay AreaLily Chen
From the series SoMa NowJanet Delaney
Ingerson Ave. between Redondo St. and Ingalls St.Sergio De La Torre