SF Camerawork was founded in 1974 with the mission of promoting emerging photographers and encouraging diverse approaches to the medium; Hal Fischer, Donna-Lee Phillips and Lew Thomas – three influential conceptual photographers of the period – were among those involved in establishing the cooperative organisation. SF Camerawork fearlessly mounted early-career solo exhibitions for Joel-Peter Witkin (1982), Allan Sekula (1985), Uta Barth (1994), Todd Hido (1997), Gregory Halpern (2007) and Meghann Riepenhoff (2016), just a few of the exhibited artists that are now well-known names. It has organised compelling (and, in some cases, prescient) thematic exhibitions about photography in California, photomontage, identity politics, and digital photography.[4]
Programming
According to Artweek:
SF camerawork has a dedicated Education Center and Library, with gallery and forum spaces to engage and to exhibit work by students from First Exposures, SF Camerworks’s photography mentoring program for at-risk youth. The 3,000 volume photography reference library includes many rare and out-of-print publications.[5]
Programming has included the publication, Camerawork: A Journal of Photographic Arts[5] and administration of the James D. Phelan Art Award in Photography.[6]
About Solos, a program which began in 2005, and featured two or three artists in simultaneous solo exhibitions, Artweek writer Amber Whiteside states, “The aim of this new series is to provide a platform that accommodates multiple artists’ visions without forcing them together under a curatorial agenda.”[7]
