Those who stroll down Geary Street on the regular may have noticed a tiny gallery on the block between Hyde and Larkin, nestled between an apartment building and a Goodwill. Its gates are often drawn closed, the walls empty. But on weekend nights, the space comes to life, with art filling the walls and crowds spilling onto the sidewalk.
Aside from the small sign above the door stating "Book & Job," the gallery is something of a mystery, so we met up with the man behind the gallery, Carson Lancaster, to learn more about its mission.
Three years ago, Lancaster was working towards a degree at the Academy of Art when he decided to change course. Using the funds he'd reserved for completing school, he signed a 10-year lease on a small, long-empty storefront on Geary Street, with visions of starting a gallery.
838 Geary had been vacant for years, but had once been home to a Chinese doctor's office. The downstairs served as the reception area, with small treatment rooms upstairs. Carson and his brother took a sledgehammer to all of the non load-bearing walls, opening up the space to create bare walls with lots of natural light. The upstairs is now rented out to a tailor, while the ground floor is reserved for exhibitions.
A temporary show is hung in the space.
From the get-go, Book & Job has been a place for artists to showcase their work without the strict eye of a curator. For a small fee, anyone who wants to have a show usually can, as long as the schedule permits. Shows generally go up one day, with an art opening that evening, and come down the next. Considering most of a show's sales actually take place at the opening, the effort can be worth it for up-and-coming artists.
But that's not all Book & Job offers—it's also the home and workspace for Lancaster and his camera club, the Find Rangers. (The name is a spoonerism for rangefinders, a common camera mechanism.)
The latest Find Rangers magazine. (Photo: Carson Lancaster/Instagram)
"In a world inundated with Instagram filters and 'selfies,' it’s more important than ever for photographers to find a collaborative community of people who continue to shoot film," says the club's website. All submissions to the club must be shot on film; the goal is to spread appreciation for analog photography and the skill that it requires.
Find Rangers submissions are anonymously selected, and appear either in a zine or on the camera club's Instagram page. The selection process varies, but Lancaster likes opening it up to the community. The last time he was going through submissions, he set up a projector and a bunch of chairs in the gallery, inviting people in off the street to say "yes" or "no" to each piece.
Film connoisseurs looking to submit to Find Rangers have until July 31st to be considered for their next project, with the theme of "Up and Down." Two to eight images shot on film can be submitted to Lancaster at findrangers [at] gmail [dot] com.
"The art scene is tough right now. There's a mass exodus, SFMOMA is closed temporarily, and everyone's moving to New York," Lancaster says. "But I love doing this; it's a way to champion other people's work."
Book & Job is open Thursday-Saturday, 6-9pm, provided there's a show hanging—which there often is. Stay in the loop on upcoming events via the gallery's Facebook page, and follow Find Rangers on Instagram to see how artists interpret each curated theme.
