Lost and Found: The Libertines of Folsom Street

Posted by GIRL'S GONE CHILD | Friday, September 28, 2007
Photography has always been my second love after writing, and I was lucky enough to shoot somewhat professionally for a a few years. I worked as a headshot photographer (come on, now. This is L.A.) and did some street-style fashion stuff in London, combing the streets for fashionable people for magazines like Lucky and various websites. I also was able to shoot my own features when I was travel-writing. A two page photo spread in Grace Ormonde Wedding Style to accompany my feature about the Amalfi Coast was thrilling. I was hooked. But it's been a while since I was able to really shoot photos. With a manual camera and a pocket of T-Max film.



Digital cameras are great, of course, but lack the soul and grain of manual photography, in my opinion. I also feel the same of MP3s and High Definition. Sound isn't supposed to be clean, and films are supposed to be grainy. Picture isn't supposed to be refined or appear instantly on a screen. The surprise of watching images appear slowly in the darkness is what makes photography, to me, so sexy.

This morning, my friends at Smith Magazine published a selection of photos I took several years ago at Folsom Street Fair in San Francisco, along with an essay: Lost and Found: The Libertines of Folsom Street. (Warning: Some photos may not be suitable for work.)




And suddenly, the normal girl is the one on the outside, appearing lost amidst the found.

GGC
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9 comments:

Anonymous | 12:05 PM

Amen to the analogic vs digital statements.

Laborathory is always the best part of photography for me... watching as the image shows up is kind of magic. Oh, all of the liquid set up, extracting the film in the dark... big times.

Unknown | 1:20 PM

WOW

Anonymous | 5:22 PM

Most of my best pictures were taken at Folsom. The people are amazing. It's this weekend. Oh boy.

Anonymous | 6:17 PM

I love the grainy and grittiness of these and totally agree with you. I love my digital camera for quick snaps and ease of upload but it's not the same as the depth of a shot from my trusty 35mm. Nice work!

Anonymous | 7:57 PM

More so than your pictures, which were beautifully tragic, was the accompanying article. The loneliness in a crowd, the masks we wear to hide who we are, the perceptions of normalcy and the duplicity of our souls were subjects you handled with candid humility and transparency. Your words reminded me of my own from a piece I wrote a few years ago for a poetry reading I was participating in. Here's a snippet of it. It's called Haunting.

Echo. What is this place among the rocks – is it your cave?
Should I enter?
Or should we withdraw and together shed this corporeal masquerade?
Unravel our predaceous bandages
Escape our anthropomorphic lachrymatories?
Undress with me and we will disappear into oblivion
Leaving but our unbound voices
To harmonize with the ululations of the universe
And the incantations of the cosmos.

Anonymous | 2:39 PM

Great essay Rebecca! And love the photos. You can't beat the city.

Anonymous | 3:57 PM

you are so talented. I love it.

Anonymous | 8:51 PM

Completely beautiful. I love the words you chose for the sad tranvestite -- showing the world his beauty, but in a different way than he'd intended.

Anonymous | 4:57 AM

It is a great photo op. Here are some documentary photos and a video I took this year !

-Shiva

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