Selected Works: 6th Street Photography Workshop

3rd Floor Gallery

Since 1992 Sixth Street Photography Workshop (SSPW) has played a critical role in the Bay Area arts community. The Workshop expands the depth and breadth of the creative practice of photography and photographic representation by offering free access to equipment, plus tuition-free classes and workshops in fine art photography to low-income San Francisco residents. Program participants—many of whom have been homeless and now live in transitional housing—have the opportunity to develop their talent and ability within a supportive learning community. Working with Founder, Tom Ferentz, Artistic Director, S. Renee Jones, other advanced members, and volunteer photographers, participants are encouraged to continue to develop their skills and become involved in collaborative projects, including:

• Exhibition of their work in supportive housing residencies in the SOMA neighborhood

• Portraiture and lighting workshops; prints are given at no charge to community members

• Exhibition opportunities in community and professional venues, galleries, and symposia

• Collaborative projects with neighborhood arts and social service organizations

What started in 1992 as a six-month project in the Pontiac Hotel—a community space shared with a medical clinic, Merchants and Residents Association, and Alcoholics Anonymous—has put down roots and grown. SSPW operates a seven-station teaching darkroom, three individual darkrooms, a film room, and digital imaging facilities, and has use of a classroom at SOMArts Cultural Center. Today the Workshop also has a studio/gallery in Hotel Isabel, a Tenants and Owners Development Corporation (TODCO) building on the corner of 7th and Mission Streets.

Visitors to the 6th On 7th Gallery include residents of single room occupancy hotels and non-profit housing in South of Market, Mid-Market, and Tenderloin neighborhoods, as well as local office workers, tourists, veterans, and art viewers. The uniqueness of the Workshop resides in the artists producing the photographs. Most often living in generational and personal poverty and disenfranchisement, photography provides a platform for the full expression of the frustration, anger, hope, community, and displacement they both feel and witness.