San Francisco MOMA- Alan’s Perspective

My first look at San Francisco with Sarah was one of awe.  I had seen photographs and shows on the travel channel, but was unprepared for the sheer size of the city.  Not only the size, but how cool and “vintage” the city looked.  After a short drive (hahah 9 hours from San Diego through rush hour traffic in LA) we crossed into the city.

Once we settled into our hotel, located right in Union Square, Sarah and I set out on foot to photograph the city and check out all the cool sites San Francisco has to offer.

Our first stop was the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, which was farther than it looked in relation to our hotel map.

The design of the exterior of the building is a beautiful example of Modernist architecture and the interior is no exception.  Wide open spaces, coupled with columns, an open skylight, and a skybridge made this experience very awe-inspiring.

The SF MOMA from a distance

Sky Light at the SF MOMA

They have some very cool exhibits , but of particular interest to me, as a photographer, was a fantastic exhibit called “The View From Here”.

Just as photography has been instrumental in shaping California’s popular image, the state — and San Francisco, in particular — has played a key role in the history of photography as an art form. Reflecting this unusually symbiotic relationship, SFMOMA was one of the first museums in the country to treat photography as an equal to painting and sculpture. In celebration of the museum’s 75 years of engagement with the medium, this exhibition explores the variety and vitality of California’s photographic tradition from the 1840s to the present. Drawn from the SFMOMA collection, it includes Gold Rush-era daguerreotypes and early panoramas of San Francisco, pictures by members of the influential Group f.64, street and documentary photographs, conceptual work from the 1970s, and contemporary photographs. Artists include Ansel Adams, Lewis Baltz, Dorothea Lange, Ed Ruscha, Larry Sultan, Carleton Watkins, Carrie Mae Weems, and many others. – from the SF MOMA exhibit.

By the end of our journey up the four floors of the building, we were absolutely exhausted and stopped to have some coffee on their rooftop garden. We then set out for our next adventure.  Getting lost on the way to Japantown!

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