Life Is Beautiful

 

I published San Francisco 2.0 on Sept. 2019 to give people a somewhat well rounded, if fleeting, glimpse of what contemporary San Francisco was like- warts, fading glory and all. Life Is Beautiful, however, concentrates on the everyday sights and visceral gut punches that compromise the homeless debacle of today's downtown San Francisco- an ongoing problem that has only metastasized during the era of Covid. No one is immune from its effects. By the grace of god, I have been spared that particular fate, and can only imagine the hell once removed that is homelessness; but no one escapes unscathed- the daily deluge of mental illness, drug addiction and neighborhood filth and squalor assaults then wears down the senses, gradually poisoning the psyche of all who venture forth,* until soon we find ourselves cursing the very sight of those most wretched amongst us.

Like the blatant high crimes and misdemeanors committed in public view by a former executive in chief, the scourge of homelessness in a cash flush town will continue unabated long as we continue to ignore what's in plain sight.

*Whac-A-Mole  The preceding video concentrates on the Tenderloin; NONE of these photos were taken there- which kinda tells ya something. As for the mayor's much publicized "Crackdown," as everyone predicted, yet another series of band aids in a long series of hoaxes... Those interested in learning more about the problem(s) that constitute homelessness (in San Francisco and elsewhere) can find more: here and here. Or click on "homelessness" under Labels on the blog's lower right hand column. And if this guy can actually make this work... I'll never shit on him again.

PS- Usually, I urge anyone interested to view the pdf of my books and zines, which are cheaper, more convenient and of decidedly better image quality- not this time, for several reasons. While most of the images have been seen previously (there's a dozen new photographs), this time 'round, I wanted viewers to actually notice and pay attention to the people and content in these images- unlike how we've conditioned ourselves to look elsewhere in real time. So I had most of the images printed... LARGE- horizontal images printed vertically to take full advantage of the full page magazine real estate, and force the viewer to make the effort to flip the zine vertically and hopefully view those pictured in a more measured and conscious manner (unlike a book, one can bend the magazine's spine and it's no big deal). And I never thought I'd say this about a Blurb production, but these full page photos were printed quite handsomely indeed!