It is with a sad heart (one can leave their heart in so many wonderful places in San Francisco) that I received the news that Gumps is closing, as in, they are going out of business. The store has been a Union Square destination shopping spot since the 1890s. I was thrilled to go in…
Category: Personal Essay
Three Generations of San Francisco Natives: Dad, Gramps and Myself
K. Demoro Photog is my photographer nom de shoot. I come from Ralph Wilkins, and Harre Wilkins Demoro’s darkroom of history. Grandpa grew up on Russian Hill, and he and Grandma (who grew up in the Mission), raised dad and Aunt Nancy in Oakland and Alameda. These are the guys who raised me to know…
Fire and Smoke
Yesterday I walked out of Walgreens on Market Street and I saw the smoke I was walking into. I’d seen the smoke from the North Bay fires in Napa, Santa Rosa, Calistoga, Glen Ellen, and points between, as I rode over the Bay Bridge that morning. And on Monday, I had been able to see…
Thoughts on Progress
Construction is everywhere in SOMA along Howard Street, Mission Street, Folsom Street, and I’m sure I’ve left one out. It really is everywhere. Being surrounded by it has made me really get into it. A picture (or two, or three) a day documents the change in the tradition of my Grandpa Ralph. He made a…
A Trip to the SF MOMA with Christina
I have been digesting the visual smorgasbord I saw last Sunday at the MOMA here in San Francisco, So many ideas and questions arose as I wandered the now-seven floors that my friend Christina and I visited with much anticipation. We had joined up to see one of our photography icons, Diane Arbus. A friend…
Hints of History
You can still see the existing interior of the City of Paris department store, especially at dusk when the pillars that support the dome are illuminated. Glass and steel are fine, but the building that now houses Neiman Marcus is no match to the old classic department store that once stood on the corner of…
A Love Letter to the City of San Francisco
I love you, San Francisco. Sometimes I hate you, sometimes I’m indifferent, but I always come back to you. It’s not just because I work in the heart of you, in Union Square. It’s not because I spent 20ish years moving around you, from apartment to apartment, trying to figure out your mysteries as I…
Another Morning, Another Commute
Friday morning, January 6th, 2017. They are calling it the calm before the storm, as a monstrous wet and windy storm is on its way tonight. But the real battle in the Bay Area today was getting the hell to San Francisco in time to clock in to work on time. The last time our…
Millennium Tower Christmas Tree
Wandering the city at night, a sign of humanity above winks above the MUNI bus, catching my eye. The Salesforce tower is to my right, climbing massively and ever ploddingly into the sky. This is the changing skyline of Mission Street, easily seen from the Bay Bridge toll plaza. Obscured by fog at its very…
SF Love Letter
This happens every fall. I fall in love with SF all over again. Forget fall forward spring back…I can tell it’s happening when I can’t stop taking pictures and I saunter down the streets feeling like a superior San Franciscan. Ah, I think. No one else has that light, that scene, that architecture, that persistence…
A New Project Begins
I’m going to share a secret with you. It’s not really a secret, but I’ve been keeping it to myself while it’s been “in development.” It’s this: I’m writing a novel. That’s no big deal, but finishing it will be. I don’t like to reveal too much, but it’s a historical time travel story, set…
My BART: A Sort of Memoir about my Father
When my dad died in 1993, the BART Board of Directors sent a funeral flower wreath. It was in the shape of the BART logo. Really. A blue and white ba. My family was honored, but my cousins and I thought it was the ugliest thing we’d seen in a long time. Especially after my…
