Pier 24 - An Amazing Photographic Venue

Last Monday I was fortunate to be able to visit Pier 24, the largest photographic venue in the United States - 28,000 square feet - located in a recently renovated warehouse underneath the San Francisco Bay Bridge. The venue has been open to the public since 2010 and houses the permanent photography collect of The Pilara Foundation.  It is open Mondays through Thursdays by advanced appointment and admits only 20 visitors for two-hour self-guided tours three times each day. 

The current show is From the Collection of Randi and Bob Fischer and runs through February 28. This exhibition features hundreds of prints by over twenty renowned photographers in seventeen separate rooms. The show includes silver gelatin prints - with the approximate numbers shown in parentheses - by Edward Weston (11 prints), Diane Arbus (18 prints), Robert Frank (17 prints), Garry Winogrand (30 prints), Lee Friedlander (over 65 prints), Walker Evans (over 80 prints), Harry Callahan (23 prints), Aaron Siskind (15 prints), Helen Levitt (3 prints), Paul Strand (4 prints), Alfred Stieglitz (6 prints), Harry Callahan (23 prints), Man Ray (8 prints), Robert Adams (26 prints) and the Bechers (over 125 prints). Also included in the show is color work by William Eggleston, Andreas Gursky, and Richard Misrach. If you plan to be in San Francisco, a visit to Pier 24 should be on your agenda, but be sure to make your plans early since advanced reservations fill up early.

An interesting video of Bob Fischer discussing his philosophy of collecting and walk through of a portion of the exhibition is posted on You Tube.

 

Entrance to Pier 24