Photographing San Francisco’s urban environment grew out of another project, documenting Golden Gate Park. The park has a fascinating life of its own, completely separate from the urban milieu that surrounds it. I often walk into the park to photograph among the giant ferns and redwood forests. I see the incredible diversity of flora represented in the park’s gardens as a mirror of the diversity of the City’s population, the very thing that makes San Francisco such a wonderful and unique place.

San Francisco’s distinct neighborhoods generate countless images of the City’s rich multi-cultural foundation. While I am drawn to imagery found in the ethnic variety of neighborhoods like China Town and North Beach I am equally fascinated by the line and form and muted light present in the towering Financial District.

I have been photographing for over twenty years. With the exception of a brief period shooting color for magazines, the majority of those years have been spent working in black and white. I have always been drawn to images that strongly imply a human presence but lack the visual of a human figure. While people often appear as significant elements in my images they are rarely the subjects of my photography, but when they are they usually are not aware of being photographed. These images are often more dynamic than those in which the person or group is conscious of the camera.

About six years ago I made the decision to no longer handle photochemistry and in 1999 I began experimenting with a “digital darkroom.” At that time I began shooting chromogenic black and white films and using Nikon scanners and Epson printers. Currently I shoot Kodak Black & White + film. I scan my negatives with a Minolta Dimage Scan Elite II and make archival prints on an Epson 2200.

P H O T O G R A P H Y
ooDavid W. Sumner
ooo415 . 661 . 7026

dave@bigcrow.com
www.bigcrow.com