Mission (is) Gold
An editorial dumpster dive into the alternative value market that fuels Mission District’s street life.
San Francisco’s Mission neighborhood sits at the epicenter of a 21st century tech gold rush. But in the shadows of Silicon Valley, a different class of entrepreneurs survives and thrives on the streets.
Created back in 2016 in the hope of inspiring people to pay attention to what’s unfolding on the streets around them and to reconsider what is classified as trash and what is seen as treasure, Mission Gold is an independent photojournalism project about looking and elucidating the lives and art of the overlooked and disenfranchised street residents of San Francisco.
Most importantly, Mission Gold wants San Franciscans to realize that curiosity and compassion are the currencies that count most.
The first three issues of the series — MONEY, MAGIC and MISFITS — present a holistic view of the street, its undiscovered gems and untold stories, in an era of rampant gentrification and income inequality that leaves many behind.
Nick Marzano is the chief dumpster diver, shaman whisperer, shadow economist, writer, photographer and founder of Mission Gold. He spent two years wandering the streets of the Mission — photographing and interviewing the individuals he encountered and collecting the raw material found in Mission Gold. As a Creative Director working in tech, Nick is challenging Silicon Valley’s assumptions about entrepreneurship.
“I moved from Australia to San Francisco four years ago and found an apartment at 16th and South Van Ness,” Marzano said. “Every morning, I watched tech employees queue up to board shuttle buses in front of the gas station on the corner, the same place where people living on the streets of the Mission hung out at all hours. The juxtaposition was striking. I had to start documenting it.”
Nick acknowledges that technology dramatically improves lives, yet believes if the tech community invested more time ‘interfacing’ with street-level entrepreneurs in their own neighborhoods — it could create the dialogue, data, and disruptive thinking that might help reduce the gap of the haves and the have-nots in San Francisco.
From sidewalk salesmen to modern day shamans, alien archaeologists to can recyclers, Mission Gold is an editorial dumpster dive into a world of alternative value.
All profits from the sale of Mission Gold Issues will go to Tipping Point Community, an organization that fights poverty in the Bay Area for the 1.3 million people too poor to meet their basic needs. Since 2005, Tipping Point has raised more than $150 million to educate, employ, house and support low-income individuals and families in the Bay Area. Learn more at tippingpoint.org.
