JANET DELANEY Public Matters

Description

JANET DELANEY Public Matters brings together photographs made in Reagan-era San Francisco. They capture the spirit of protest and parade.

During this turbulent time in the mid-eighties, Delaney was living in the primarily Latino neighbourhood of the Mission District. She would spend the weekends photographing public gatherings. These included the annual Cinco de Mayo parade, and the Peace, Jobs and Justice marches, which rallied against the U.S. invasion of Nicaragua. If political governance was regressing, the West Coast city was a place where “progressive ideas would always be upheld.” Public Matters celebrates multiculturalism and collective struggles for social justice. And, it surfaces at a time when the message of building bridges is needed more than ever.

In the vintage glow of her sun-drenched images, Delaney leads us in and out of crowds. She takes us among demonstrators, fair-goers and cross-dressers. As well as union organisers, beauty pageants, and dancers. Also, salesmen, mothers, kids, and market punters. She caught as many intimate moments as she found collective voices. Her photographs are fearlessly upbeat. However, they show a time when people were feeling the shift to a conservative government.

Delaney recollects “The demands of the 1960s were addressed in the 70s: the end of the Vietnam war, women’s rights, environmental issues, gay rights, to name a few. Then when Reagan was elected all this came to a halt.”

And as soon there were placards in the streets Delaney was there. In the middle of the maelstrom, she made pictures of public matters.

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