This has nothing to do with porkpie hats and wingtip shoes. I just like the photograph.

While waiting to go into a photography exhibit at Pier 24  in San Francisco, I took this shot with my iphone.

About Face is an exhibition focusing on the tradition of portrait based photography.

Portraits from mid-nineteenth century to present day are represented. Portraits range from small mug shots from the early twentieth century to large portraits from Richard Avedon‘s series ‘The American West.’

Nearly one thousand photographs drawn primarily from the Pilara Foundation Collection are on display. While the collection tends to be American in spirit, with significant holdings of Walker Evans, Dorothea Lange, Robert Frank, and Diane Arbus, Europe, Asia and Africa are also represented in important works by August Sander, Daido Moriyama, and Zwelethu Mithethwa.

The best way to experience this exhibit would be to go back many times and take one room at a time. The connection between each photographer, the  subject and you, the viewer, is quite absorbing.

Across the street from the San Francisco Jazz Center there is a big empty building. The boarded up windows now display black and white portraits of jazz artists. Tomorrow,  I’ll be back in the studio painting.