Outer Sunset
Photographed - June 16, 2016, 3:12pm - 4:54pm
A surf-side neighborhood with a dreamy name and wild history.
I don’t quite know what it is that lodged Outer Sunset so firmly in my memory. I roamed many neighborhood in San Francisco, and enjoyed a ton of them, but over the years my mind always seems to wander back to Outer Sunset.
It’s a crossroads I’d never seen - the city just fades out into the sands
It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before, I suppose. Living on the East Coast, mostly in New York City, I never encountered this sort of laid back, sorta run down surfer town that’s clearly filled with artists, beach bums, and bohemians, given the bold color schemes and designs of several homes I stumbled across. The shops I explored catered to surf merch, art supplies, bohemian boutique goods, vegan food, there was even a coffee shop that sold fresh young coconuts for sipping.
I love it out here.
I think what’s so amazing about it is that it’s still part of San Francisco, but the scale and density are so much different than the central parts I spent most of my time in. I was staying with friends in SoMa, and we spent a ton of time eating in the Mission District, and the vibe of this place is so much more chill and calm that that. You can sort of feel the calm of the beach seep into the land, and time moves slower here.
Maybe it’s like that in every beach town, but the fact that this isn’t some far flung sleepy place, but the edge of a major city, is what really astounds me about it. It’s not like this in Coney Island, or Rockaway Park in NYC - they don’t have the sense of relaxation I felt out here. I guess that’s part of the whole West Coast vibe, after all.
Maybe I should go back.
And get into surfing.
I hear it’s nice.
Interesting Origins
I learned a bit of interesting history about this place. One of the locations I shot had two different names on the signage. The wall has “Case for Making” painted on the side, which is what I titled the files, but the window says “Carville Annex.” As I was reading up on the Sunset District, of which Outer Sunset is a subset, I discovered it’s ragged beginnings as Carville. When electrified street cars & cable cars came on the scene, the made obsolete the older horse-drawn street cars, which were sold off at discount prices just to get rid of them quickly.
He called it “The Annex” and catered to day trippers
A guy who lived in a hut out here in the barren “Great Sand Wastes” in the 1890s used one of these defunct trolleys as a coffee shop that he named “The Annex”. Eventually the dunes got filled with folks living in the horse-cars, and the area took on the name Carville. So I’m guessing the name of the art supply store I visited was related to that.
Eclectic, colorful fascades are the a name of the game out here.
Some little bungalows that might have been some horse cars once! Wait, what’s going on with that hole in the front of the green one?
Photographic Doubts
There are several photographs I’m sharing here that I almost didn’t share, due to them not being the strongest and most compelling imagery - but I thought it better to have them here as, at least, historical documentation of what the neighborhood was like at the time, and a catalog of what caught my eye there.
I could fill several volumes, I’m sure, with the punishment I put my work through, especially this early work from my first years as a full time professional photographer. But, just because I can see a lot of room for improvement, doesn’t mean these works are without merit. There is value in them inherently by virtue of their existance, and they don’t own anything to anyone to be wildly spectacular. And if I let that mindset run rampant, as of most often do, I would never share any of my imagery, for fear that I could always make some improvement, and if I don’t then ridicule is just around the corner.
I caulk this up to too much time worrying about what others will think, rather than just letting myself be pleased with my art and enjoy it for its own sake, which is clearly the much better mindset to cultivate.
Locations - Photographed in Outer Sunset
Prints - Outer Sunset
Here are some of my favorites from this neighborhood, fit to hang on your wall. Contact me if you’re interseted in purchasing a print.
I think these might do well in a photo book, so it’s got my mind going about making one. I could do a short zine for just Outer Sunset, or a whole book for the entirety of SF. That would be quite the endeavor. I should probably start with small neighborhood zines - that way I can cut my teeth on it a bit as I work my way up. And, I can release smaller things while I build out the individual components of the larger book. I’m liking this idea.