It was 80 years ago that two major building projects commenced in the Bay Area. When the Golden Gate Bridge and the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge were completed in 1936 and 1937 respectively, San Francisco was linked to our neighbors in the north and east bay, cultural and economic relationships were solidified, and two soon-to-be iconic structures were on their way to worldwide recognition. In December 2013, if further delays don’t hinder, the Bay Bridge will undergo a major shift when the span connecting Yerba Buena Island to West Oakland is demolished and a new, earthquake safe (does such a thing exist?) section replaces it. Before the transition takes place, stop by the Oakland Museum of California and see Peter Stackpole: Bridging the Bay, an exhibition of photographs that detail the construction of our equally beloved and reviled landmark.
Bridging the Bay is the third in a series of exhibitions that considers issues in California history and culture through the medium of photography. Following closely presentations of work by Ken Light and Beth Yarnelle Edwards, the exhibition of Stackpole’s black and white images portrays a turning point in Bay Area history and subtle commentary on the impact of labor and technology in our daily lives.
Peter Stackpole (1913-1997), the son of San Francisco artists Ralph Stackpole and Adele Barnes, is best known along with Alfred Eisenstaedt, Margaret Bourke-White and Thomas McAvoy as one of the four original staff photographers employed by LIFE magazine, and for his candidly funny images of Hollywood’s rising stars.
Peter Stackpole, Waiting on Catwalk
The series currently on exhibit was captured after the young Stackpole, as the story goes, was invited by bridge builders to photograph the pace and product of their work. Carrying a handheld 35mm camera, lauded at the time for its easy use and compact size, Stackpole often visited the worksite without the protective equipment that prevented laborers from plunging to certain death in the cold waters below. Stackpole presents these fearless men as the only pliable forms in compositions otherwise dominated by rigid steel beams and coiled cables. The bent forms of two men at work in Waiting on Catwalk form a perfect parenthesis around the massive ships, which from above appear miniscule as they steam across the Bay. Stackpole was not ignorant to the fact that the work these men performed was dangerous, at times fatal, as the piece entitled Quitting Time suggests. After a fatality, it was common for workers to end the day early, rather than continue with the weight of another’s death on their minds.
