PRESS

From Laura C. Mallonee’s article for Hyperallergic:

The genesis of SoMa’s gentrification began in the 1960s, when blue-collar workers started moving out as starry-eyed bohemians flooded in. It changed again in the late 1970s with the city’s aggressive efforts to renew the derelict neighborhood. That’s when photographer Janet Delaney arrived. One night, she watched as workers bulldozed a residential hotel where many poor people had made their homes — an experience that inspired her to begin documenting the vanishing community with a 4×5 view tripod-mounted camera.

Today, South of Market bears little resemblance to its old self, but a one-room exhibition of Delaney’s series at the de Young Museum offers a reminder of the working class neighborhood that once was — one image shows a blacksmith working away in his shop, another captures the smiling husband-and-wife owners of a hamburger joint. Through the series, Delaney offers a tribute to the sidelined, disposable community and a questioning look at the cost of progress.

View the original article

Browse all of Janet Delaney’s work at ClampArt