San Francisco Plays Itself utilizes the notion of autobiography as a way to explore the work of contemporary artists who have engaged with the cultural and physical landscape of the Bay Area. Featuring more than 35 photographs by 31 artists, accompanying texts provide a contextualizing articulation by each artist of his or her work that serves to emphasize the autobiographical focus in egalitarian terms. The cumulative effect of these projects exemplifies the evolution of a specific time and place, while representing the unlimited experiences and possibilities of life in a major American metropolitan region. INCLUDING WORK &amp; CONTRIBUTIONS BY: John Chiara, Mark Citret, Judy Dater, Kota Ezawa, Alex Fradkin, Jona Frank, Richard Gilles, Jim Goldberg, Katy Grannan, John Harding, Chauncey Hare, Christina Koci Hernandez, Zig Jackson, Michael Jang, Keba Konte, Annie Leibovitz, Alice Waters, Ken Light, Ari Marcopoulos, Mary Ellen Mark, Laura Albert, Ken Miller, William Vollmann, Richard Misrach, Abelardo Morell, Dan Nicoletta, Gus Van Sant, Catherine Opie, Adam Klein, Michael Rauner, Alice Shaw, Shi Guorui, Larry Sultan, Sergio De La Torre, Tseng Kwong Chi, Catherine Wagner, and Mary Gaitskill. 
PLUS THE NEW CD BY THE SIZE QUEENS featuring guest appearances by Laura Albert, Carlos Forster, Guillermo Gomez-Pena, Tim Mooney, John Murry, Danny Pearson, and Terese Taylor.

An Autobiography of the San Francisco Bay Area, Parts 1 & 2, Part 1: San Francisco Plays Itself

Arts & Photography

Alice Waters

Catherine Opie

Larry Sultan

MARY GAITSKILL

Abelardo Morell

Mary Ellen Mark

Richard Misrach

Chauncey Hare

Gus Van Sant

John Chiara

Laura Albert

Shi Guorui

The Size Queens

Photography & Video

SF Camerawork Publications

Over the last four years Jennifer Karady has turned the focus of her art practice toward staging photographs of a significant memory from individual veterans' experience in relation to how that memory manifests itself in their civilian life. In creating these photographs, Karady actively engages with these veterans, both as collaborators and subjects. After extensive interviews and a lengthy planning process, each veteran reenacts the chosen memory, in uniform, often surrounded by family and friends and within her or his everyday environment. Karady's pragmatic approach to difficult subject matter shines through in her project's rigorous conceptualization and egalitarian execution. As staged, completely analog photographs rich with allegory and symbolism, these veterans shared memories, recalled and revealed in collaboration with Karady carry with them the stories of their subjects. The veterans' recollections, derived from interviews conducted by the artist, are included alongside the photographs. Currently a work-in-progress, Karady hopes to eventually complete this project with 25 photographs of veterans from around the country. This 12 x 12-inch monograph is published by San Francisco Camerawork Publications in a limited edition of 1,000. In addition to a full-color 24-page portfolio that includes soldiers' stories of war recounted in their own voices, this book also includes an introduction by curator Chuck Mobley, an interview with Jennifer Karady, and an essay by art historian Carol McCusker.

In Country: Soldiers' Stories from Iraq and Afghanistan

Chuck Mobley

Carol McCusker

Jennifer Karady

The Future Lasts Forever utilizes the notion of autobiography as a way to explore the work of contemporary artists who are using archival material, exploring persistent subject matter, and examining their own personal histories. In addition, the practical ways and means that surround art practice and preserve works for the future beyond the ephemeral exhibition model are surveyed. To emphasize an autobiographical focus in egalitarian terms, accompanying texts featuring an articulation by each artist, publisher, or collector regarding his or her particular focus follow the portfolio. The cumulative effect of these projects serves to exemplify the evolution, over time, of a multifaceted and multicultural major American metropolitan region. INCLUDING WORK AND CONTRIBUTIONS BY: Cause Collective (Ryan Alexiev, Jessica Ingram, Bayete Ross Smith, Jorge Sanchez, and Hank Willis Thomas); Michael Light; Linda Connor; Chris McCaw; Lukas Felzmann; Richard Gordon; Apollonia Morrill; Robert Dawson; Youngsuk Suh; Louis Hock; Anne Collier; Victor Arimondi; Ivy Nicholson; Kevin Killian; Janet Delaney; Peter Tonningsen; Binh Danh; Hulleah Tsinhnajinnie; Tammy Rae Carland; Jessamyn Lovell; Lynn Hershman Leeson; Paul Schiek; Abner Nolan; Todd Hido; Charles Gatewood; V. Vale; Peter Berlin; Robert Mapplethorpe; Jack Fritscher; Lew Thomas; Ira Nowinski; Caitlin Atkinson; Richard Barnes; David Maisel; Mark Richards; Tom Marioni; Paul Kos; Anne Walsh and Chris Kubick.

An Autobiography of the San Francisco Bay Area, Parts 1 & 2, Part 2: The Future Lasts Forever

Jack Fritscher

Robert Mapplethorpe

Todd Hido

Michael Light

Kevin Killian

Anne Collier

Ivy Nicholson

Hulleah Tsinhnajinnie

Tammy Rae Carland

Lynn Hershman Leeson

Peter Berlin

Tom Marioni

Suggestions of a Life Being Lived is a bold presentation of contemporary work that looks at queerness as a set of political alliances and possibilities. Untethered to institutions of sexual or gender normativity and in pursuit of greater freedoms, the work in this book represents queer activism, intentional and imagined communities, self-determinism, and DIY alternative world-making. Less concerned with categorical sexual identities or coming-out narratives, this book presents work that looks outward towards collective and resistant expressions of queer community existing outside of dominant gay and lesbian culture.

Suggestions of a Life Being Lived: A Queer Exploration of Three Public Themes

Danny Orendorff

Adrienne Skye Roberts

Focusing on the relationship between the photographic arts and writing at a time when each medium is in flux, As Yet Untitled: Artists and Writers in Collaboration was an experimental proposition for an exhibition at San Francisco Camerawork (January 6 April 16, 2011) as well as an accompanying catalogue. What happens when photographers and writers are brought together and asked to collaborate? One can only imagine, hence the project's title. Artists and writers whose diverse practices intersected through shared concerns with photography and writing were invited to participate by producing projects that explore these mediums as they experience a similar push toward the use of new technologies. The collaborators who agreed to participate provided a series of responses to the investigation of a photographic and written union.

As Yet Untitled: Artists and Writers in Collaboration

Guillermo Gómez-Peña

Dodie Bellamy

David Horvitz

Anne Colvin

Stuart Krimko

Nonsite Collective

Matt Lipps

Nona Caspers

Colter Jacobsen

Zach Houston

Ed Steck

Allone Co./Publication Studio

RJ Muna

Leigh Illion

Gerald Slota: Story represents a project many years in the making. This monograph includes a selection of 36 photographs, many of them unique, from eight different bodies of work beginning in 1994. Also included is an introduction by acclaimed author Joyce Carol Oates as well as a foreword by SF Camerawork director Chuck Mobley.

Gerald Slota: Story

Joyce Carol Oates

Gerald Slota

In March 2010 Jason Lazarus began to build an archive of photographs deemed too hard to keep; a project he says he has committed to for life. To date, submissions have included a variety of photographic materials: photo albums, slide, negatives, jpegs, and photo objects depicting friends, family, pets, interiors, lovers, and landscapes. Lazarus encourages donors to the archive to indicate whether the submission may be exhibited and published or if it is to remain private. Anonymity is maintained with all donors. In its first three years the archive grew to include more than 3,000 donations. SF Camerawork hosted a drop box to collected donations to forward to Lazarus from October 2010 to March 2013. This monograph represents a selection of more than 50 images from the archive and includes an essay by acclaimed art historian Abigail Solomon-Godeau. This monograph was produced in conjunction with the SF Camerawork exhibition T.H.T.K (San Francisco) (January 16 - March 16, 2013).

THTK (2010-present)

Abigail Solomon-Godeau

Jason Lazarus

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Books by SF Camerawork Publications