San Francisco is a very illusive town. It is full of beautiful people, wonderful landscapes and rich with history. Even now, the music scene of the late Sixties alone still brings so many people to this concrete jungle to try and stake their claim in the business. At first glance, San Francisco seems like a place where dreams can come true....but that is only half of the story.
SF is also a town where people can lose it all in the blink of an eye. With drugs so easily accessible on every corner and people constantly ignoring this fact, the term "free love" that began with the idea of people being allowed to express themselves free of judgement has taken a completely different definition. This way of thinking now allows the users to keep on using and allows the residents of the city to walk around pretending that it isn't happening....and it doesn't look like it's going to be changing anytime soon. The worst part of it all is that we as a community have seemed to given up on trying to fix this problem.
With that in mind, I feel that it is our responsibility to try to share this problem with as many people as we can to try and shed some light on this ever growing issue. It is our duty as artistic people like ourselves to try and make people aware of the problems in our community through creative means of expression, and people like photographer Steven Rea are doing their part. This East Bay native has been taking wonderful photographs of the Bay Area and sharing them through his website, stevenreaphotography.com and on his Instagram account, @steven_rea, as well. Steven recently came out to SF to shoot photo's of the band Overland while they were in the studio, but he found the alley that we were working in to be full of subject as well. He has made a portfolio of some of the photo's that he took this weekend and they are up on his site now, or you can check it out by clicking here.
The moral of the story is that these people that are struggling are just that, people. People need help from time to so when someone walks up to you and looks like they might need a hand, try to reach out and help in whatever way you can. The power of kindness can do wonders, but only if you are sincere. If you're not sincere about helping your fellow man, how do you expect anyone else to fix this problem? All it takes is one person to make a difference.....so what are you doing today?
SF is also a town where people can lose it all in the blink of an eye. With drugs so easily accessible on every corner and people constantly ignoring this fact, the term "free love" that began with the idea of people being allowed to express themselves free of judgement has taken a completely different definition. This way of thinking now allows the users to keep on using and allows the residents of the city to walk around pretending that it isn't happening....and it doesn't look like it's going to be changing anytime soon. The worst part of it all is that we as a community have seemed to given up on trying to fix this problem.
With that in mind, I feel that it is our responsibility to try to share this problem with as many people as we can to try and shed some light on this ever growing issue. It is our duty as artistic people like ourselves to try and make people aware of the problems in our community through creative means of expression, and people like photographer Steven Rea are doing their part. This East Bay native has been taking wonderful photographs of the Bay Area and sharing them through his website, stevenreaphotography.com and on his Instagram account, @steven_rea, as well. Steven recently came out to SF to shoot photo's of the band Overland while they were in the studio, but he found the alley that we were working in to be full of subject as well. He has made a portfolio of some of the photo's that he took this weekend and they are up on his site now, or you can check it out by clicking here.
The moral of the story is that these people that are struggling are just that, people. People need help from time to so when someone walks up to you and looks like they might need a hand, try to reach out and help in whatever way you can. The power of kindness can do wonders, but only if you are sincere. If you're not sincere about helping your fellow man, how do you expect anyone else to fix this problem? All it takes is one person to make a difference.....so what are you doing today?
Written by: Jacob Schmidt
Photo's by: Steven Rea
Photo's by: Steven Rea