PETER BALOGH: URBAN SURFACE SERIES 1 NO. 1
July 29, 2011 1 Comment
San Francisco, 2011
ABOUT THE URBAN SURFACE SERIES:
The Urban Surface Series is a photographic narrative project by Tenderloin resident and artist Peter Balogh. Using an old-fashioned wooden pinhole camera, Peter has provided a visual soundtrack to his personal musings on interactions with Tenderloin residents and characters. He has kindly allowed TLRS to repost this series. You can see more of his work here.
I’ve seen him many times before.
He is always in the same place, sitting in a folding chair, wearing the same hat and poncho, reading a book. I have an old picture of my dad reading a book like that.
He seems very organized, polite, and in great physical shape. He might have some military background. He never asks for money; instead, he has a cup on a string with a small fishing pole, for those who want to help.
When I walked up to him, I was nervous. He wasn’t. I asked him if it was okay to take a picture of him, he simply said “Yes, of course”. He only got excited once he saw my wooden pinhole camera. “It looks old”, he said. I told him it’s an old method that takes about ten seconds to expose the film, so I would need him to be very still. “No problem”, he said.
He and his friend beside him were watching me quietly as I placed my camera down on the sidewalk about ten feet away. A third man, someone they apparently knew, walked up to me and tried to start a conversation. I didn’t mind, but he kept walking into the frame as I tried to take a shot.
My guy must have seen my frustration because he told the disruptive man to stand to the side and let me do my thing. I rolled the film forward and took a second picture. It was a success.
I said thank you to him and put some money in his hand. Some of the others began talking to me again, very fast and excited. I couldn’t really understand what they were saying.
“Don’t mind them,” he said, “it’s the drugs. I don’t do drugs. I drink, but no drugs.”
“It’s all good,” I said, “I drink, too.”
We smiled and I wished him good luck.
-PB
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Zero 135 camera by Zero Image, Kodak Professional 125 PX film
“I’d rather be a poor clown then a rich thief” is what David, or “Alley-Cat’s” gone fishing sign used to say, attached to that extended pole on Hayes St. He was a constant fixture in Hayes Valley for all five years I lived there, often recounting faaaarrr out tales of saving a mobster’s life in New York and being awarded anything he desired; walking across the Mojave desert and passing out from heatstroke, awaking to being airlifted to a hospital. A tall tale teller to be sure, his consciousness seeping in and out of the novels he reads, the thin line of reality and imagination blurred as a drunk’s vision.
Polite, loving and the definition of a wanderluster, David had a friend who looked like a classical drawing of a dwarven miner. Short, thick, big bearded – a gold miner who would leave often to head to the mountains of California’s northern regions to try to unloose some of mother earth’s bling. One day David was all broken up, told me that fellow had passed from a long bout with illness, cancer I think it was. A tragic feeling, man.
Anyhow, thanks for capturing on film the magic that is Alley Cat…