Potrero: 1980s - Jo Babcock Photography

19 Pennsylvania - Jo Babcock

The Art, Music and Recreation Center and the San Francisco History Center are thrilled to announce a new exhibit on the 4th floor of the Main Library featuring local photographer Jo Babcock. On view are close to 60 photographs of the Potrero Hill / Mission Bay neighborhoods of San Francisco taken in the late 1970's and early 1980's.  Babcock has augmented the exhibit with historical research into the buildings, lots and businesses of the time.       

The exhibit will be up from May 26, 2018 - August 23, 2018 on the 4th floor of the Main Library / 100 Larkin Street, SF 94102               

Artist's Statement:

"Between 1979 and 1983, I photographed extensively around San Francisco’s Potrero Hill and Mission Bay neighborhoods. Shooting over 200 color negatives with a high quality 4"x 5" view camera, I documented major features of the area including its local architecture.

During the 1970s & 80s, Mission Bay and lower Potrero were still active, maritime and industrial neighborhoods. Noise, pollution and flammable gas tanks were tolerated in close proximity to Victorian houses and residents of low to modest incomes. Artists lived in raw, asbestos-ridden warehouses with cheap rent and tremendous views. In 1977, while still a graduate student, I moved to the area and built a loft inside a massive warehouse located two blocks from the bay. My windows overlooked Third Street, Bethlehem Shipyards and Mission Rock Resort.  

For four years, on weekends and early mornings when the streets were mostly deserted, I went out with my camera, documenting the cottages, lunch counters, warehouses and railroad yards. Many of the buildings and businesses I captured on film 35 years ago are now gone or changed beyond recognition. They remain only as a photographic memory."

                                                                                   Jo Babcock, 2018

Related Program 6/30/18: Irish Hill: The San Francisco Neighborhood That Disappeared.

Related Reading:

The invented camera : low tech photography & sculpture / Jo Babcock ; introduction by Bill Berkson ; essay by Douglas R. Nickel.

Artists File on Jo Babcock held at the Art, Music and Recreation Center desk.  Contains resume, CV, magazine articles. exhibition listings and other ephemera.