Between the Lines
“Uptown, Downtown”
While Up from the Deep is mostly about the architecture and history of San Francisco’s inner city, it is also a personal document of inner transformation and discovery. Those who wish to have a full understanding of this project’s genesis and evolution will find enlightenment in the preface and introduction.
Hi !
Your photographs tell, well, a story that needs to be told and listened to – THANKS!
If you don’t mind too much, I have a personal type question to ask you, because I’ve been where you were and am now struggling with what can be best defined as “nostalgia” for my life as a hope-to-die drug addict in the Tenderloin back from 1994-2000 (I’ve been clean since 2/28/02, living back in NOLA). It’s a real pulling either at my heart or at my residual need for self-destruction: or, both, that has kept calling to me over the last nine years. Yeah, I’ve left my heart in San Francisco and it feels like my soul in the Tenderloin.
So, anyway, my question: If you have this too, then how do you deal with it?
BTW, your work has not triggered these feelings. It has had the opposite effect, raising my conscious to a higher level as I see the beauty and the legacy of these, our monuments, in your photographs.
Best,
Jack
First, my sincere thanks to you for your comments, Jack. Honestly, I’ve (thankfully!) never had to deal with that tugging to use again. I think this is primarily because I have such clear memories of what a living hell it was to be addicted. Also, because my work has been focused on Sixth Street and the Tenderloin, I am constantly reminded of this by the human wreckage with which I come into contact nearly every day.
You may have left your heart in San Francisco, but the fact that you’re staying clean tells me that you’re still the master of your soul.
Take care and keep in touch. If ever you return to SF, I hope you’ll look me up.
Mark
Thank you, Mark.
Yes, gratitude is a good perspective to maintain and I’ll look at that in myself.
I’ll continue to follow your work; and, will look you up when I come back to SF!
Take care and have fun,
Jack