Haight-Ashbury

The February 2010 “Hot Lot” for The Registry was San Francisco’s Haight-Ashbury district in large part because of the uproar that has been created by the grocer Whole Foods trying to occupy a vacant food market on the corner of Haight and Stanyan facing Golden Gate Park (the former Cala Foods). While residents in the upscale neighborhood that is home to some of the finest Victorian homes in the City are excited to have a grocery store nearby, local business owners hope to keep Whole Foods away because of its status as a national chain, afraid that it may detract from the character of the neighborhood.

While shooting the what I needed for the story, I really wanted to chat with some of the local youth that still identifies with the “Summer of Love” philosophies of the 1960′s. Are there still groups that are the stereotype of what Haight-Ashbury is famous for? Are they convinced that this is who they are or are they just trying to fill the role of a personally idealized social group? I had no idea.

I got to know a group of drifters between the ages of 16 and 34 who were on an eternal road trip following the band Further (comprised of the 2 remaining Grateful Dead members and others) across the country. I hoped to explore their lifestyle more and put a documentary together about one guy in particular, but I never saw them again. They either hit the road to Miami to get to the next concert in time or the rain drove them out of sight, I don’t know. The below images are what I was able to shoot, I will be writing a post eventually about the stories that they told me and how they embrace life on the road and will post it under my “Travels” category with a link to it here also.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 19th, 2010 at 12:17 am. It is filed under On Assignment, San Francisco and tagged with documentary, editorial, Haight Ashbury, hot lot, San Francisco, The Registry, urban. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.