Today we have the first installment in a new series, partnering with our friend Garry Bowden of Souls of San Francisco.
You may already be familiar with Garry's work; he filmed our recent interview with Bill Del Monte, a 108-year-old survivor of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. With Souls of San Francisco, Garry stops people in the street and captures a quick photo and brief interview, providing a glimpse into local life. It's partially inspired by his friend Brandon's work, Humans of New York.
Today we present a few portraits that Garry took recently in the Lower and Upper Haights.
"What brought you to San Francisco?"
"I was actually born in Seoul, but I spent my formative years in Sacramento where from time-to-time I'd come visit my grandfather here in San Francisco. I developed an affinity for the city at a very young age and loosely dreamt of living here one day."
"In my teens I'd learned that George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch was located not far from San Francisco and being a Star Wars lover began to think how rad it would be to work there. Long story short, I made some brash decisions in my early 20's and moved to the bay with nothing more than a dream in mind and was blessed with the opportunity to join 'The Ranch' in 2007. Still crazy when I think about how it all went down considering my rationale or lack thereof."
"I think that's a lot people's story. San Francisco attracts all types. What do you do in the city?"
"During the day I’m a creative lead at a startup called ToyTalk here in the city. Im extremely excited about the technologies we’re pioneering. We’re the first conversation based entertainment company to build believable interactions between children and the characters we’ve developed."
"That's a cool use of technology. I need some new music, what's in your CD player right now?"
"What’s a CD player? Darkside just blew my mind at Coachella for the 2nd time in as many performances. In fact everything Nico Jaar is experimenting with has struck a chord with me. I can’t wait to play through Little Dragon’s new album Nabuma Rubberband next month. So far the singles they’ve released are dope. SBTRKT, James Blake, Kendrick Lamar, and Radiohead are always in heavy rotation."
"What's your favorite thing to do on a Friday night in SF?"
"I mean after throwing down at work Monday to Friday nothing cuts the strings like a tumble of bourbon. After that I just want to get out there and feel the energy and go wherever it takes me, man. Our city is special like that."
"Tell me about a time you were in love."
"We met when I was a junior in high school. One of my girlfriends liked one of his guy friends so we snuck out one night to meet them at a park. The two of them did their own thing and me and him just sat on top of a jungle gym and talked for like 3 hours. At the end of the night I kissed him, and that was pretty much it. The next day he broke up with his girlfriend and we’ve been together ever since."
"Ah... so you were a little home wrecker!
"I know right! But she’s married now so I think it’s all fine."
"And how old are you now?"
"28."
"Wow, so you’ve been together over 10 years!"
"Yeah, it’s been almost 13 years. We’ve been apart some when I had to travel or he had to work; that gave us time to grow independent of each other, fortunately we were still able to connect after those times."
"That’s pretty amazing. What’s the secret to making it work long term in a relationship?"
"It helps to start with unconditional love, but not everyone has that luxury. Trust, respect, and appreciation are key. Devote time to each other, to listen, to learn, to love, to share, to play, to understand, to comfort. Stay grateful for the little things and remember not to sweat the small stuff. And of course, always seek out some fun together! Try something new, revisit somewhere old, discover and explore and grow."
"Thank you."
"What are you doing with that camera?"
"Taking portraits and capturing people’s stories. You wanna share yours?"
"As long as you don’t tell my wife."
"I won’t tell her if you won’t. So how long you been living here?"
"I’ve been here since the Summer of Love in the 60’s. Seen a lot of changes. There’s a lot going on right now. The intrinsic hostilities of people are being mobilized and there’s a lot of the ‘us versus them’ mentality. The hidden stuff is coming up, the hidden racism, the hidden financialism, a lot of these things are growing in opposition to each other in great contrast to what was laid down in ‘67."
"What are you passionate about?"
"Just life, I graduated with an art degree but I don’t really know what I wanna do so I live in the moment. I think about the future but I don’t dwell on it. Same with the past ... I’m very live in the moment, let’s go with that."
For more of Garry's profiles, visit the Souls of San Francisco Facebook page. And stay tuned for future installments here on Hoodline.
