http://blog.sfmoma.org/2010/08/75-reasons-iain-boal/ Sat, 18 May 2013 06:15:16 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 http://blog.sfmoma.org/2010/08/75-reasons-iain-boal/comment-page-1/#comment-105819 Elaine Mayes Tue, 08 Mar 2011 20:40:59 +0000 http://blog.sfmoma.org/?p=15549#comment-105819 It is interesting to hear Iain Boal’s commentary about my photograph. Although his speculations are provocative and apt, the subjects actually lived nearby. The image is from a series I made in 1967 and primarily 1968. I began this series as a reaction to the photojournalistic and sensationalized images of the Haight that were being presented by the press. I too was a member of the press at that time, living in the Haight and encountering the situation there on a daily basis, but I wanted to show a more ‘real’ and substantial vision of that particular time and place. Instead of a story-telling approach I used what I call a conceptual documentary approach, wherein through repetition of similar pictures, an idea of the whole could be constructed. This meant that the images were made to be seen as part of a group that would represent the whole, but I wanted each picture to stand on its own as well. I wanted to show the Haight for what it was rather than what it represented. My original title for the series was, “We Are the Haight Ashbury.”

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