First edition of South of Market by Janet Delaney (2013)
First impression
Large format hardback in fine condition
Signed by Janet Delaney to title page
Some very minor wear to extremities of boards
Some very slight toning to extremities of pages
Otherwise, pages clean, binding firm
About South of Market
South of Market is a photographic portrait of a San Francisco neighbourhood in the throes of urban renewal. In 1978, Janet Delaney moved to San Franciscos South of Market district because the location was central and the rent was cheap. On the weekends she photographed with her large format camera. At the nearby construction site for what is now the Moscone Convention Centre. After witnessing the nighttime demolition of an adjacent residential hotel, Delaney became interested in the rippling economic effects urban renewal was having on poor and working class residents. Leaving the construction site behind. Delaney then joined local efforts to protest the citys treatment of the community. She also began to photograph and interview her neighbors in their homes and places of work.
South of Market is not a romantic representation of San Franciscos past, but rather a testament to a vanished community made up of blue collar workers, small business owners, families with children, artists, and also gay men. The work is especially relevant today, as a new wave of gentrification brought on by the second internet boom is again driving less affluent residents out of San Francisco. As I continue to photograph in San Francisco and in urban areas around the world, says Delaney, I see that who plays and who pays remains, as it always was, the central issue. The photographs are also accompanied by interviews. Which offer personal responses to the impact of gentrification on twelve of Delaneys neighbours. An essay by Erin OToole sets the context for this story by providing a history of this constantly evolving San Francisco neighbourhood.
