History

In 1991, Sixth Street Photography Workshop began offering free black-and-white film photography training to adults living in South of Market single-room occupancy (SROs) hotels. Tenants and Owners Development Corporation (TODCO) sponsored the workshop to give residents a creative outlet during building renovations. The program began with a goal of lasting six months. It started at the Pontiac Hotel on Sixth Street, which had an entrance on Minna, where other programs offered free lunch alongside mental and physical health services. Tom Ferentz, the Founder, also curated The Eye gallery. It was a block and a half away from the Pontiac Hotel and had a black-and-white film darkroom. After instructing participants on using a 35mm film camera, talking to them about composition, and emphasizing the importance of light, he brought the students into the darkroom. He solidified their interest in the workshop by allowing them to experience the magic of developing and printing their captured images.

During the first ten years of the workshop, more than 200 adults came through the program. Students would go out together and photograph during the day, late at night, and in all kinds of weather. Tom often found them waiting for him at the back door entrance to the darkroom. They worked on their artistic vision and participated in group projects. Tom created "Portrait Days," a day of on-site formal and informal portrait sessions of people in the community. The workshop published two photography books and hosted and participated in over 100 gallery shows in California, Oregon, Chicago, and Pingyao, China.

2002, we moved to SOMArts Cultural Center, where our reputation garnered a new darkroom. We opened our program to military veterans who deal with PTSD when we partnered with Dan Evenhouse, a social worker for the Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center at the San Francisco Veterans Administration. We also introduced photography to non-profits and city-run programs like the Health Department's HIV program and the Boys and Girls Clubs of San Francisco. First Exposures, a photography program for young people 11-18, opened at the Eye Gallery a few years after SSPW. Years later, when First Exposures were between darkroom spaces, we would host them at our SOMarts locale.

In 2003, we introduced colored film photography, large format cameras, and studio lighting to our program. Darryl Smith invited us to join him while he developed his new art space at the 509 Cultural Center and in The Tenderloin National Forest. We brought "Portrait Days" to the Tenderloin community. Our printer made 4x6 inch prints, allowing us to give our subjects their pictures immediately. This project lasted ten years, shooting during the day and at night, indoors and out of doors, once, sometimes twice a week, allowing anyone who came in to be the photographer or the subject.

In 2013, TODCO created space for us to open a gallery; we opened on May 1, 2014. Considering our original name, Sixth Street Photography Workshop, and the new Gallery's location on 7th at Mission Streets, we named our space 6th On 7th Gallery. We have introduced more than 500 adults to our program by this time. As the workshop moves forward, it is in the capable hands of S. Renée Jones, who always holds in mind a saying, "You do not see the world as it is; you see the world as you are." This saying helps to affirm for her the power of photography, the manifestation of growth, and the development of our most significant moments of seeing.

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS, VISITORS, MEMBERS, AND STAFF.

S. Renée Jones

May, 2022