Managing Dylan

The friends over at ABV Gallery in Atlanta will be hosting Sean Desmond’s “The Tenderloin Project” starting this friday. If you have to be in Hot-lanta the next couple weeks, be sure to check out ABV Gallery.

http://www.vimeo.com/12623749

Medicine Agency is proud to present the first official exhibition of photographs by San Francisco based photographer Sean Desmond. The show will feature a collection of 35 photographs from Desmond’s ongoing Tenderloin Project, a portrait in film and photography of San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood. To many, the Tenderloin is a poor and stigmatized area, to be avoided if possible, rushed through if necessary. As a point of departure, Desmond and the Tenderloin Project withstand such stereotypes and enter the neighborhood with eyes open and active intent.

http://www.vimeo.com/10518751

The images that emerge transcend a mere documentation of what we could all see if we only looked. We witness the Tenderloin through Desmond’s interaction with it, a process explicated in the Project’s films and evident in each photograph. Portraits of the neighborhood’s marginalized dwellers stand alongside portraits of the streets themselves, all—dwellers and streets, alike—caught in the act of living. The starkness of the black and white photography upholds the starkness of the locale, while magnifying the countervailing warm welcome of the subjects and vibrant animation all around. The viewer enters the Tenderloin with Desmond, with the objectivity of an outsider, and is left with the tension of intimacy, raw and tender.

Desmond’s San Francisco show will mark the first official exhibition of his work from the Tenderloin Project. The show will then travel to select U.S. cities, where Desmond’s penetrating images will give broader audiences a personal introduction to understanding what life is like in the Tenderloin.

A portion of proceeds from the show will be donated to Hospitality House’s Community Art’s Program, the only free-of-charge fine arts studio for homeless and poor artists in San Francisco. Promoting and giving access to art in the Tenderloin, Desmond feels, will allow his project to live on in the community for years and generations to come.

The show will also feature collaborative pieces by a variety of artists from the Bay Area and beyond, including Mike Giant, Greg Mike, Mark Bode, Apex, Oliver Black and others, with an exclusive silk-screened show poster by Sean Desmond with Mike Giant.

SF-based clothing brand Black Scale will also be releasing their second run of t-shirts and first run of pull-over hoodies featuring original photographs from the Tenderloin Project.

This video showcases the collaboration between The Tenderloin Project and San Francisco-based Black Scale, as they release two new tees and a hat from The Tenderloin Project, both welcoming the new Black Scale flagship store. The campaign will help raise money for the Tenderloin Community of San Francisco. Video and photography was done by Sean Desmond.

http://www.vimeo.com/7557057

The Tenderloin Project- headed by my homies John Elliot & Sean Desmond, was recently featured on Hypebeast.The story did a quick feature on the details of the project, as well as allowed feedback from the viewers of Hypebeast. If you are not familiar with the project : watch the video and check the website above. The project itself sheds light upon one of San Francisco’s most historic districts.

“The Tenderloin Project” is an ongoing artistic endeavor focused on one of San Francisco’s most marginalized neighborhoods, The Tenderloin. Utilizing the interactive mediums of photography and film, we aim to capture a compelling and honest portrait of this diverse community.

With living exhibitions that will travel through San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York the project will be showcased in a variety of outlets, creating access for a range of viewers to see these intimate, yet objective images, and to understand what life is like in the Tenderloin.

The project will culminate in publishing the images in book form, with proceeds from the sales being donated to organizations that promote and give access to art in the Tenderloin. This, we feel, will allow our project to live on for years and generations to come in the form of art within the community.”

http://www.vimeo.com/6152967

Read the write-up here.

Was scrolling through my tweets yesterday and noticed a tweet by thetenderblog.com. The guys over there blog about different things going on in the tenderloin, including projects, tales, and events. They did a nice little feature on The Tenderloin Project:

“Although leafing through the few pictures on their website we noticed that they’ve focused quite a bit on the homeless and the underworld, and that we’re typically not fans of the use of black and white photography for dramatic effect, there is a certain human warmth in the images that transmit a sense of optimism and faith in humanity. And for that we have to commend the guys behind the project, as it’s no small feat.” (source: “the tender blog”) 

You can visit The Tender Blog here. Check out what else there previewing and get involved in the cause.