February 22, 2007

Dittmar exhibit reveals lives touched by poverty

The portraits featured in the Dittmar Memorial Gallery’s second winter 2007 exhibition “Stories of the City,” by the Sixth Street Photography Workshop (SSPW) are part of an ongoing project involving San Francisco residents who have experienced poverty or homelessness first hand.

“Stories of the City,” which opens Feb. 14 and runs through March 16, will have an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 22. Tom Ferentz, founder and director of SSPW will be the featured guest at the reception.

San Francisco’s Sixth Street Photography Workshop is a highly respected program that shares the art and skills of photography with impoverished and homeless people. Ferentz, an award-winning photographer who teaches photography at the University of San Francisco, launched SSPW in 1991. Staff, volunteer photographers and students assist Ferentz.

The photographs featured at Dittmar are of residents of single resident occupancy hotels and traditional housing. They were taken by advanced photographers with the workshop, by Ferentz, local residents that are mainly teenagers, volunteer photographers, photography students and photographer and former SSPW Project Director Amanda Herman.

During the Feb. 22 opening reception “Stories of the City, Sixth Street Photography Workshop Portrait Project 1991–2005,” a new 42-page, full-color art catalog with introductory essays by Ferentz, Herman and workshop photographer and teacher S. Renée Jones, will be available to the general public for a $15 donation (the student and low-income donation is $10). Donations will benefit SSPW.

The gallery is open from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. daily. For more information call (847) 491-2348.