Looking Forward: 10 Years of Photography at Pier 24

We visited the much anticipated and much delayed second half of Looking Forward:10 Years of Photography at Pier 24 recently.  The first half of this show launched in 2019. This visual odyssey took us on a view of photographs of urban life layered over decades as well as carefully composed compositions depicting interior worlds.

I feel that every proper city needs a few good spaces for art kids and art lovers alike to really dig deep and appreciate the works. Since its public opening in 2010 Pier 24 welcomes visitors to it’s space. Pier 24 houses the Pilara collection, a vast and diverse body of works. Sixteen artists make up the show. It’s quiet and cleverly curated rooms are each dedicated to the works of a single photographer. As a result, the viewer is able to delve into the art.

Visitors are greeted with a wall of postcards of the Bay Bridge by artist Richard Learoyd. We pass under the shadow of the Bridge to enter the galley. It sets the tone as photographers Daniel Postear, Awoiska van der Molen and Austin Leong show us their version of San Francisco. Expect to see some familiar places captured in those delicious decisive moments that photographers all covet. You will see a San Francisco you recognize. Either by the hard lines interacting with the sunlight of the urban streets or by the subjects that walk them.

Postear’s works in particular struck us as he gently captures the class divide between unhoused people and tech workers. The light surrounding the subjects often give an otherworldly glow to these street views. Postear graduated from SFAI in 2015.

Leaving the city scapes behind we came across Erica Deeman’s The Brown Series. Portraits of men of the African Diaspora sit shirtless against a brown backdrop. The series takes on the omission of black men from traditional portraiture. Deeman gifts the subjects a quiet dignity as they stare slightly off camera.

Tania Franco Klein’s often quirky works came both framed and in prints directly applied to the walls. Long Story Short referenced Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills with their carefully crafted narratives. Other artists feel present in the work: Jo Ann Callis, Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth for example as the main subject, a woman, moves across a world of the artist’s creation.

Looking Forward shows us many different ways to exist in a city, inside the narratives that exist in our minds and where those roads may cross over and meet. Pier 24’s large warehouse space is located on the Embarcadero. Sadly, Pier 24 plans to close it’s door in 2025. Before then, take a chance to see this beloved San Francisco space.

To book a visit: https://pier24.org/exhibitions/
All images of the show are taken by Vita Hewitt