A Walking Tour of Industrial Oakland, California

My Photography … Alongside Factories, Decay and Dinner

For one evening, six of my photographs were featured at a dinner party-meets-art exhibition event in Oakland, California.

According to their Web site,

Local Social is the brainchild of Gretchen Krebs and Catherine Weis. Our mission is to merge elements of design, art, and installation for inspiration and appreciation.

The theme was “Vessel,” but what is a vessel?

Upon learning of Local Social’s call for photography, I searched my archives for images of anything that made me think of a vessel. But just what was a vessel, I wondered, as I curated a mini-gallery of boats, trains, baskets, mugs and other things that worked with the theme.

Gretchen and Catherine selected six of my images and gave me space on an industrial wall to “hang” them on.

By the time I figured out how, my hands were black with dirt from moving around the heavy metal girders. But, in the end, I feel I came up with a creative way to display my work in a very non-traditional space.

Plenty of Time to Photograph Industrial Oakland

I arrived at Chris French Metal early enough to set up, but then found myself with lots of spare time before the event began. Partly inspired by the the 200 Yards photography project, I decided to wander around the industrial Oakland neighborhood with my camera.

Large warehouses and captivating urban decay dominate the area surrounding 16th Street in Oakland, California. For more than an hour, I was engulfed by scenes of factories, train tracks, doors, signs and art.

About the Local Social Vessels Event

The event itself was held in a giant warehouse space that was beautifully transformed into a warm and inviting dining hall.

Surrounding two long dining tables were physical vessels of clay and paper mache by Ann Weber, Whitney Smith and Sara Paloma.

Sara also delighted the crowd with an evening-long demo of her work on a potter’s wheel, creating numerous vessels of all shapes and sizes as the evening went on.

Dinner and Drinks as Art

Dinner was a delight, with tri-tip steak, pirogies, pasta, pastries and other exquisite gourmet foods cheffed up by Caleb Jones from Michael Mina and Maggie Weber-Striplin from Pachamama.

The evening’s musical entertainment was courtesy of Uriah Duffy and Max McVeety and the bar featured some of the most delicious custom cocktails with names like the Ship’s Cove and Piggy Bank. I can still taste the rye!

Other Photographic Artists

Also displaying their photography were the very talented Melissa Kaseman and Summer Makovkin. Be sure to check out their Web sites and support local art!

I Love Trains!

Perhaps my favorite part of the photo walk I took was all of the train tracks and signs in the surrounding area.

I have loved the rails since my father and I first set up a Lionel 027 Gauge toy train set on my grandfather’s living room floor.

The decaying doors of the still-active steel and iron mills also captivated my interest, as evidenced by these next two photographs.

Finally, here is a more broad view of the types of streets I was walking down to capture these images.

I would like to thanks Genevieve and Shelly at Lightbox SF, whose first put me in touch with Local Social.