Last Winter, I was working as both a grant writer and educational coordinator, for the POPS nonprofit organization in the Sunset District of San Francisco. I rather like serving the neighborhood in this way, because I could help small businesses thrive and I also got the chance to teach middle school students from nearby schools, about things like public service, the nonprofit world, and photo journalism. The photo journalism part is an old fashioned term I use to describe writing social media shares today. Hopefully, the education I provided helped these students with critical thinking & to be thoughtful about what they put out into the world.
Since I like to explore in my own hood in search of garage sales, I found a household of SF State type students, who had this Art Cooperative garage sale format, in front of their house. I met this cheery guy named Carlo, who works for the Leica SF shop in town. Bing! We hit it off right away. He liked the classic Photo Journalism curriculum I was developing for the POPS Seasonal Internship, and said he wouldn’t mind being a guest teacher at one of my photography workshops in the future.
Since Carlo works at Leica and likes to shoot with the M6 35mm film camera, I shared with him my chosen walk-around camera: the Contax G1 range finder. The WWII photographer Robert Capa, apparently, switched from Leica to Contax cameras, during his tenure. I would love to tryout shooting with a Leica at some point. These days, I am shooting with CineStill 50D daylight film. (see below)
I found my treasure in Carlo’s Photography bin: there were pins, patches, stickers & a cool-looking filmic booklet. He gave me deal at 5.$ I picked up a little inspiration that day to keep moving forward with my photography & storytelling presence in the neighborhood. I shared these wares with my middle school interns, and they have been encouraging me to set-up shop on line, ever since.
Popzeit CineStill 50D current photo zine issue | 5$ photo zines featured at Etsy Paul’s Boutique
