Background information

During the turbulent mid-1980s, Janet DELANEY lived in the predominantly Latino Mission District of San Francisco, California. She spent weekends photographing public gatherings, from the annual Cinco de Mayo parade to marches for peace, labor and justice opposing the U.S. invasion of Nicaragua. Even as political leadership regressed, the West Coast city was a place where, as Janet DELANEY recalls, "progressive ideas were always held high." Celebrating multiculturalism and the collective struggle for social justice, Public Matters comes at a time when the message of building bridges is needed more than ever.

Content

Gathering photographs by Janet DELANEY from Reagan-era San Francisco, the photo book 'Public Matters' captures the spirit of protest and parade. She leads us through crowds in the vintage glow of her sun-drenched images - among demonstrators, carnies, cross-dressers, union organizers, beauty pageants, dancers, vendors, mothers, children and market-goers - in search of as many intimate moments as she found collective voices. Unflinching and joyful, her photographs nevertheless depict a time when, as she recalls, "people were shaken by the turn to conservative government. The demands of the 1960s were echoed in the 1970s: the end of the Vietnam War, women's rights, environmental issues, gay rights, to name a few. Then, when Reagan was elected, all that came to a halt. And as soon as the streets filled with posters - 'Babies are for loving, not for bombing'; 'Hate can never cure the disease of fear, only love can do that' - Janet DELANEY was there, in the midst of the maelstrom, taking pictures of public affairs.