Pre-1974

04/19/11

A some time ago my father found some old photographs and negatives which I took while I was still in High School. There are many things that happened during my teen years, many things I would prefer to forget. It's hard to believe that nearly 30 years have passed. During this time from 1972 to about 1976 I was really into photography probably would have stayed with it if I could have made any real money at it. I liked Black & White film, to me it showed more feeling than color. The other advantage was that I could use the high school dark room equipment and develop and print my own film. Many pictures I took was of my environment.

I believe it was Mark Twain who said "The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco." The only exception to San Francisco's cold foggy wet weather is September. During this time the weather can get up to 80^oF or higher at night with no wind. It was these times that my friends and would get our bikes and explore the city. I took this photo of Market St. on one such night in 1972. Also for entertainment we would make balloons out of candles can dry cleaning bags. They look like UFO's. About 10 minutes after we sent one up, we hear some people on the street saying "Look at that, what is it !?"

To the right is another photo taken of Chinatown in 1972. I had a few friends that lived in Chinatown. If you wanted something like decent fireworks (The kind that go Bang!) or alcohol, night clubs, and not to mention some excellent restaurants that where open till 4:30 am, all could be found in Chinatown. A fine El Salvador restaurant was also open to 4:00 am, at times Mariachis would come strolling in around 3:00 am. In 1972 Chinatown covered about 20 sq blocks bordered by Stockton St. and Broadway St. Now 30 years later Chinatown stretches to the beach.

The ladies in the above photographs Luana, Barbra and Denise were some of my favorite subjects. One place I like to use take pictures was the cliffs on Baker Beach on the site of Sutro Baths in San Francisco.
	The photo on the left was taken during a demonstration for MLK Jr. on January 15th 1972 at Serramonte High School. The photo on the right was taken around the same time at the same school.

This high school had 1,500 students. It was the first high school I went to, I later transferred to Woodrow Wilson in Bayview area of San Francisco. Some of the students were mean, some were kind, some followed and some lead. It was a city school. At this point I would like to ad some fond memory, unfortunately at the moment I can't think of any.

This site was last updated 06/12/05