the 770 show • kelli yon

in the adobe books stacks, kelli yon found the book, "alien contact: the first fifty years" by jenny randles. on page 30 is a vivid image of a disc-shaped object over san francisco taken on october 10, 1956. this picture sparked an endeavor for kelli-she began training immediately to become a san francisco ufo field investigator for mufon (mutual ufo network). in early january 2011, a sighting was reported (mufon case # 27230) in san francisco's hayes valley neighborhood and as part of her research, kelli visited the location in hopes of encountering the unusual.

image 1: CA: UFO Alert 3, 2011, newsprint takeaway
image 2: page 30 from "alien contact: the first fifty years" (ufo over san francisco, 1956)

the 770 show • suné woods

for the 770 show, suné woods browsed the stacks of adobe bookshop inviting the books to choose her. for several hours, she combed through the sections carefully and finally, a fascinating object from the 1920s found her: "history of prostitution" by dr. william w sanger. the weathered blue book contains only one image, a light impression made from a label on the inside front cover. "history of prostitution" is dr. sanger's record of his world travels studying vast populations in an attempt to bring the reader a comprehensive, global understanding of the history, places, societies, and statistics associated with prostitution.

suné was fascinated with the authoritative language used in the book and questioned the accuracy of sanger's study. his research appeared skewed, especially since he characterized a large portion of the populations he visited as "uncivilized"--a word that stood out and inspired suné's cyanotype print of the phrase: "bold-faced lies". the book's context seemed to take on a whole new meaning when read in 2011. suné was curious and at the same time, fascinated, as to why contemporary editions of the book have been printed considering sanger's lop-sided demographic.

in her practice, suné uses the body as a site to think about histories: passed on, forgotten, or imagined. www.sunewoods.com

image 1: suné woods, untitled (bold-faced lies), 2011 and "history of prostitution" in installation at the 770 show
image 2: cover of "history of prostitution"
image 3: light impression of on inside cover of "history of prostitution"
image 4: chapter 30, barbarous nations in the "history of prostitution"

the 770 show • parker tilghman

parker tilghman's working process usually involves making archive folders on his computer filled with countless images that he has compiled from the internet. for the 770 show, parker saw the books at adobe in a similar way, as an archive of sorts. while in the stacks, parker focused on the queer section and stumbled upon a book titled "coming out of the classroom closet: gay and lesbian teachers, students, and their curricula". his thoughts immediately jumped to a project he had been developing over the past few months dealing with images of young boys who had recently committed suicide due to aggressive bullying at their schools. parker was interested in how these images were now functioning in a separate context from their original intent, both as final effigies of the young boys and as stand-ins for victims before and after. covering his computer screen in a shroud, parker pressed sheet film directly onto the monitor--essentially making direct contact with his subject. the resulting image is both haunting and elegiac; a poignant memoir of beautiful lives cut short. more of his work can be seen at icaughtaglimpse.com.


image 1: cover of "coming out of the classroom closet: gay and lesbian teachers, students, and their curricula" by karen m. harbeck
image 2: untitled (aeon 13), 2011, gelatin silver print
image 3: untitled (aeon 5), 2011, gelatin silver print
image 4: untitled (aeon 10), 2011, gelatin silver print

the 770 show • paul schiek

when paul schiek was asked to be a part of the 770 show, he immediately thought of his friend, artist ofer wolberger's latest project, called "covers". ofer xeroxed old, cloth-bound book covers creating a complete black and white book. by isolating each book title and removing it from its literary context, ofer allowed the simplicity of the word, the font, and the design to reveal itself. inspired by the poetic purity of "covers", paul explicitly sought out books in the adobe stacks with unique titles and through a sort-of xerox collage, created three phrases that, in a sense, describe paul's thinking about his artistic and professional practice (making both pictures and books): "follow this fanny-to the bitter end", "american labor-to the bitter end," and "the old glory-to the bitter end".

for more information on ofer wolberger's "covers" book (which we highly recommend), please visit: http://horsesthink.com/?p=4834


image 1: paul's chosen books on the shelf at adobe books backroom gallery
image 2: paul schiek, "american labor-to the bitter end," 2011
image 3: paul schiek, "the old glory-to the bitter end," 2011
image 4: paul schiek, "follow this fanny-to the bitter end," 2011

the 770 show • sean mcfarland

in the studio sean mcfarland looks through hundreds of photographs a day. some are his own, some are in books, and some he finds on the internet. with each image, there's an invitation into a world outside his own and for sean, photographs and books have always functioned as a way of travel, be it through image or story. when perusing the busy, urban adobe bookstore he came upon "the redwoods" by richard st. barbe baker. the trees on the book's cover instantaneously reminded sean of his many trips spent among the giant redwoods, and in a way, he could almost smell the forest and feel its mist. certainly, a far cry from the sometimes overwhelming bookstore in san francisco's active mission district. in response, sean made a photograph that depicts what he thought it would feel like to be in the places on the pages of this book.


image 1: cover of "the redwoods" by richard st. barbe baker
image 2: interior page of "the redwoods"
image 3:"redwoods and sun", sean mcfarland, 2011, unique polaroid

the 770 show • sarah hotchkiss

author william saroyan writes, "up to now travel to the moon has been imaginary." while this sentence was written in 1967, today half of it is still true. sarah hotchkiss's work, my vacation to the moon documents imaginary travel, shortly before liftoff. her work concerned with space exploration, science fiction and the night sky can be found on her website.

images 1, 2, 3: my vacation to the moon, 2011
lightbox, loupe, fake kodachrome slide
image 4: pages 98 & 99 from "look at us" by william saroyan with photography by arthur rothenstein