Stories From Home
To stay or go?
Status Update is a series of multi-platform exhibitions curated and produced by Catchlight that looks at visualizations of inequality and resilience in our own San Francisco Bay Area.
One of four parts. Read the intro essay Bay Centric and view Vol 2: Place + Purpose and Vol 3: Opportunity.
STATUS UPDATE BAY AREA, VOL 1 // HOME
As we embark on our online presentation of Status Update Bay Area, going deeper into each of the fourteen projects from the exhibition, we’d like to take a moment to expand on the connections between these works and the themes they address.
In the Bay Area, securing a place to live is of pressing concern. Astronomical rents created by an inflated housing market have spurred a working class exodus from San Francisco and other cities in Silicon Valley’s orbit. Families affected by the ongoing foreclosure crisis find themselves grappling with a deep sense of dislocation from the place they call home. Meanwhile, an invisible population of homeless men and women rest their heads wherever possible, including the neglected public transportation networks of our most affluent suburbs. And in the Bay’s rural periphery an older, more entrenched sense of home and homesteading persists, where an inherited back-to-the-land ethos leaves today’s youth with the lingering question: to stay or to go?
We invite you to dive into these powerful stories — and those to follow. Each represents a studied reflection on the changes afoot in our hometown. Many have bemoaned the rise of Silicon Valley as a death knell for the vibrant cultures and communities of our fabled City by the Bay. But as Michael Shaw commented last November, after seeing the exhibition’s inaugural installation at SOMArts, “Instead, the show afforded the lens to consider the tech boom in the face of the character, diversity but, above all, the perseverance of the communities, cultures and subcultures of the region.”
Please take a few moments to follow the links below, see what we’ve been up to and share with your networks. And let us know how we’re doing! Your feedback is crucial to our process for bringing the world’s finest photography into view.
— Catchlight editors, Berkeley, Calif., February 2016
HOTEL 22
Elizabeth Lo’s documentary short employs an unobtrusive lens and a haunting soundscape in its portrayal of the Silicon Valley bus line which doubles as an unofficial homeless shelter at night. The film is a masterwork of observational cinema, and a must-watch for anyone conflating “Silicon Valley” with the message of altruistic efficiency projected by its corporate heroes. As we see clearly in Hotel 22, inequity and systemic negligence is alive and well in California’s techno-utopia.
“To me, the world on this bus is a microcosm of the profound inequities and injustices within the Bay Area and Silicon Valley — an area that many of us consider to be progressive and well-off.”
–Elizabeth Lo, filmmaker, Hotel 22
WEST COUNTY
Sonoma native Talia Herman trains a loving lens on her family, friends and rural homeland in West County. But her subjects’ pastoral ideal is also a reminder of how much has changed in Northern California since the days of peace and love. Herman’s embattled peers are holding their ground amid the uncertainties of a region in flux, and her tender vision accentuates that fragility even as it reinforces their stoic persistence.
“Now Sonoma is an area where Bay Area residents play, while country kids run to San Francisco. Or at least they did when it was affordable.”
–Talia Herman, photographer, West County
FACES OF FORECLOSURE
Joseph Rodriguez’s Faces of Foreclosure takes a hard look at families who’ve lost their homes to foreclosure in California — a crisis in lending and mortgage practices which continues to reshuffle the demographics and stability of cities across the Bay Area. From Stockton to Antioch, San Francisco to San Leandro, Rodriguez brings us face-to-face with everyday people persevering in the wake of hardship.
“There’s no real sense of security anymore.”
–Ethel Gist, Faces of Foreclosure
Based in Berkeley, Calif., Catchlight helps committed photographers and visual storytellers find their voice and master ways to help you hear it. We support the creation of innovative new documentary work, and produce unique ancillary material toward an enhanced viewer experience. Catchlight partners with media organizations, shares stories through traditional and contemporary platforms and organizes live and virtual events connecting visual storytellers to their audiences for more intimate and meaningful exchanges.
