San Francisco, Church Street 18 - 1983

Curator: This is a photograph, "San Francisco, Church Street," by John Harding, taken between 1981 and 1983. What catches your eye initially? Editor: The immediate contrast grabs me: the bare-backed man in the foreground walking towards a darkened doorway versus the older woman in a sensible dress staring directly at us. It feels very staged, like a study in opposition. Curator: Indeed. Harding’s compositions are rarely accidental. He plays with cultural and societal archetypes here. Note the “Bud Light” sign above the door—almost a beacon of commonplace American life. Yet, the central figures don’t seem to engage with that directly. Editor: Absolutely. The back of the man is very visually strong, taking center stage, blocking easy access. He becomes this screen that redirects the woman's focused gaze, our gaze. How do you think that impacts the image? Curator: For me, he is almost like a classical hero. Though the back faces us, there is strength and purpose in his stance. Contrast that with the elder woman’s wary glance. Is it fear, curiosity, judgement, a combination of all? Both stand outside convention. They operate on the margins in very different ways, highlighted through the angle, their clothing and poses, Editor: The woman, despite being less imposing physically, becomes almost confrontational in her fixed stare. I do wonder what their relationship is to this "ordinary" American brand. It is an ordinary moment caught off-guard in this everyday street setting. The mundanity with something striking is hard to ignore. Curator: Harding highlights how diverse the street can be, in class and race in general. Yet the beer is part of this. Perhaps here it presents commonality – something familiar to them, the viewer or indeed anyone, or else another layer that both characters have nothing to do with at all. Editor: Precisely! Harding gives no answers, really, does he? He shows us the urban landscape with two individuals that hold their secrets as they pass in the same streets and wonder on where each character goes and is up to in life. This is why it makes Harding such an outstanding artist. Curator: It really does allow the everyday symbols become very potent indeed in revealing stories of a moment caught.