Bob Eckert Photography
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    • Variations on a Theme
    • Why I Take Photographs
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San Francisco Chinatown
A Vintage Series of Photos from the 1970s

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In the mid 1970s, I lived for a while in San Francisco, California. I was born in Oakland, but being raised in a military family meant we moved quite often during my elementary and high school years. When I was on my own I visited San Francisco as often as I could since my grandmother on my mother’s side still lived there. I would visit her along with some aunts and uncles and cousins — one, my cousin Pat — owned Dianda’s Italian bakery, famous for their rum cakes, which was started by his father.
 
When I lived in the city in the mid ‘70s, I lived in an apartment on Haight Street, a block off Market. I worked part time for a newspaper in Mill Valley, and did freelance work for a few magazines and advertising agencies. When I wasn’t involved with those pursuits I spent a lot of time walking the streets taking photographs. One of my favorite places to photograph was Chinatown, but not the Chinatown tourists frequented.
 
Chinatown was about a 30-minute walk from my apartment. I’d go there often to photograph and buy fresh vegetables at one of the ubiquitous Chinese delis or fruit and vegetable stands that the locals frequented. Since most of these establishments weren’t appealing to tourists, it was very much like wandering a foreign town, and I often was the only non-Chinese person I would encounter during these walks.
 
This was in the pre-digital camera days, so a technical note here:
 
All the images shown here are scanned from 35mm black and white film negatives. The scanner I own and use isn’t ideally suited for slides or negatives. It does a better job with things like photo prints. The scans aren’t as sharp as the originals and if one tries to sharpen the images up (because they loose some sharpness and quality of the tonal range in the scanning process) it adds an undesirable amount of grain (or “noise” to those familiar with digital terminology). Consequently I find myself apologizing for the scans because they don’t match the sharpness and image quality of the original prints.
 
OK, enough of the technical stuff, on to the photographs.
 
People fascinate me. I photograph people at work, at play and in family situations, to name a few. In my Chinatown photos I tried to show the hustle and bustle of ordinary life in this section of San Francisco. People working, greeting each other, shopping for vegetables like I was, reading the Chinese Times… they were all subjects I was interested in. For the most part I felt, after spending days on end on the streets, that I was accepted and fit in, as much as a non-Asian guy carrying a camera around could fit in. I wanted to show un-posed, natural looking images, and for the most part I feel like I succeeded.
 
A number of the images were used at that time in the San Francisco Examiner’s Sunday magazine, California Living. Many others, over the years, were used in numerous newspapers, magazines and textbooks.
 
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To contact Bob Eckert for assignments, consultations or workshops, please email bobeckertphotography@yahoo.com
​or use the contact form on the About page
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  • Home
  • About
  • Clients
  • Projects
    • 2022 New Mexico Treasures Calendar
    • 2022 Pic of the Day
    • Abiquiu Dam
    • Abiquiu Livestock Sale
    • Adjective Challenge
    • Aerial Photos
    • Aircraft - BW Portraits
    • Albuquerque Aquarium
    • Albuquerque Sunport Lowrider Show
    • Alt Fashion
    • Amish, Kalona, Iowa
    • Angel in Albuquerque
    • Astro Zombies Murals
    • Birds
    • Black Mesa, San Ildefonso Pueblo
    • Cabezon Peak
    • Car Portraits
    • Cell Phones
    • Cerro Pedernal
    • Chicano Park Murals
    • Children Portraits
    • Churches
    • Circus Behind the Scenes
    • Cloud Photos
    • Colors
    • Computers
    • Concorso Santa Fe
    • Descansos
    • Design photographs in the style of Charles Sheeler
    • Detroit Street Photos
    • Dogs
    • Explora Albuquerque
    • Fisheye Lens Photos
    • Lowriders
    • Gay Pride Parade
    • Ghost Ranch
    • Goggles Sunglasses and Masks
    • Goofing Around with mime Mark Wenzel
    • Horizont Camera Panoramic Images
    • Humor
    • Industry
    • Infrared Photos
    • Insects
    • International Center of Photography
    • Isolated Trees
    • Isolation Photos
    • Juxtaposed
    • Lady of Guadalupe
    • Landscape Photos
    • Lowrider Summer
    • Marine Corps Recruit Depot San Diego
    • Matachines de Alcalde
    • Mirror Images
    • Moon Photos
    • Moving Arts Espanola
    • Moving Landscapes
    • Murals in Espanola, New Mexico
    • New Mexico Press Association 2022 Award Winner
    • New Orleans Street Photography
    • NM Treasures 2023 Calendar Image
    • Northern New Mexico
    • Norteno Artist Portraits
    • Panoramic Photos
    • Photographers
    • Pic of the Day
    • Plants and Flowers
    • Portraits
    • Port of Portland
    • Portraits of Strangers
    • Published Favorites
    • Repetition in Photos
    • Road to Pedernal
    • San Francisco Chinatown
    • Shadows
    • Snow Photos
    • Still Life Photos
    • San Francisco Street Photos
    • Service People Portraits
    • Shadows
    • Stand Alone Photos
    • Storm and Rain Photos
    • Street Photography
    • Surplus Love
    • The Yin/Yang of Families
    • Trailer Landscapes
    • Trees
    • Urban Landscapes
    • Vintage Ford and Cadillac Manufacturing
    • Vintage - Pre -digital photos
    • Water
    • Widelux Panoramic Photos
    • Working
  • Selected Writing/Published
    • Behind the Scenes at the Circus
    • ​​Book Review: "Orale! Lowrider: Custom Made in New Mexico"
    • Carlton, Oregon
    • Comic Con New Mexico
    • Crosswalk Painting
    • Cumbres Toltec
    • Day of the Dead, Albuquerque's Marigold Parade
    • Fog Smoke Haze in Photos
    • Gordon Tooley, Apple Guru
    • Indian Market Native Costumes
    • In Praise of Kit Lenses
    • In Praise of Manual Lenses
    • Instagram
    • Jeff Brock and Bombshell Betty
    • John Lea's Painted Truck
    • Kaleidoscope Photos
    • Light Quality
    • Luck in Photography
    • Luck in Photography vers 2.0
    • National Museum of Nuclear Science and History
    • Natural Dyeing with Glenna Dean
    • Pet Store Animal Photos
    • Rio Arriba: A New Mexico County
    • Rocket Heads Jewelry
    • Scale in Photography
    • Shooting Into The Sun
    • Spanapalooza
    • Tibetan Monk Sand Painting
    • Timing in Photography
    • United Farm Workers
    • Variations on a Theme
    • Why I Take Photographs
    • WWII Reenactment
  • Archive