Preview: The Tenderloin Project at ABV Gallery
Sean Desmond collaborated with a number of artists - Mike Giant, Apex, and ABV’s Greg Mike among them - to create pieces that use his photographs as a canvas for the work.
There’s no nice way of saying it - San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood is fucked. Walk half a mile in any direction from it and you’ll find some of the most wealthy people in the world living in opulent houses at the top of Nob Hill, working in high rise offices in the Financial District, and blowing thousands of dollars in the shops on Union Square. Tucked right in the middle of that, though, is the Tenderloin, a neighborhood for those down on their luck, living on the street, and worse.
Sean Desmond’s photographs capture the character of that place. The harsh grains of black and white film are a fitting parallel to uncomfortable reality of life in the Tenderloin. The residents framed in his lens are coping with life in different ways: finding some happiness in a moment, despairing of the place, or looking up in bewildered wonder.
For The Tenderloin Project, Desmond collaborated with a number of artists - Mike Giant, Apex, and ABV’s Greg Mike among them - to create pieces that use his photographs as a canvas for the work. Previously exhibited at the Medicine Agency and Black Scale in San Francisco, the show will open this Friday at ABV Gallery in Studioplex.
You can check out some videos about the project after the jump.