It is both the easiest and hardest choice to photograph in your own neighborhood. Easy—just step out your door. Hard—you know it so well, can you look at it with fresh attention? For me these “camera walks” in my neighborhood conjure up the flâneur, who walks with no destination in mind, wandering through the panorama that unfolds along the city’s streets. I am fortunate I live in the Mission district of San Francisco, which provides an especially rich streetscape. Gradually I began to see the value of these photos not simply as compelling or beautiful images. They can also function as documents, as mementos of the visual panoply of this neighborhood, since many—if not most—of these scenes have disappeared.
Besides the streetscape of the Mission, I have pointed my camera straight down to capture the enigmatic images beneath my feet. And more recently, I have become fascinated with the incredible diversity of shapes and textures exhibited in the trunks of trees.
