“Okay, now I want you to take a breath. And when you exhale, I want to put your image onto a piece of film.”
– Elaine Mayes, The Haight-Ashbury Portraits
Sweet Pam and Commune Group, Clayton Street, September 1, 1968
Viewing Elaine Mayes’ photographs of teens in the late 1960s in Haight-Ashbury, we see the specifics of the era’s youth culture and the Summer of Love.
In The Haight-Ashbury Portraits, 1967-1968 during the end days of the Summer of Love, Elaine Mayes took a set of portraits of youth culture in her area.
Mayes was a young photographer living in San Francisco during the 1960s. She had photographed the Monterey Pop Festival in 1967 and, later that year the hippie movement had turned from euphoria to harder drugs, and the Haight had become less of a haven for young people seeking a better way of life than a halfway house for runaway teens.
Katrinka Haraden (Trinka), 19, Haight Street, 1968
Mayes asked her subjects “to pose or sit naturally, to look into the camera and project their image onto the film.” It’s not easy. As he photographer Vivian Cherry noted: “As soon as people see a camera, they change, and what you see you lose.”
Adrienne Salinger also wanted people to act natural for her camera. She asked American teenagers not to tidy up their bedrooms before she came over to take their portraits.
Bill Yates went to where teens hang out at the roller skating rink. And many of us just took snapshots of our friends messing about at home.
(L-R) Shari Maynard 19, Red Pappas 18, Stefanie Wyatt 17, Michael 20, and Sean Herrick 18, gather on Haight Street front steps in August 1968. (Elaine Mayes)
“All of these images were spontaneous,” Mayes told AAP. “They happened when I saw them and found them while walking around, wherever they were. They were often sitting on a stoop or I asked them where they wanted to be photographed. And I told them I was doing a book about the Haight and that I wanted to include their portrait. And they all pretty much said yes. So I had them pose the way they were. And I put my Hasselblad in front of them on a tripod because I had to make long exposures. And I had to stop the camera down all the way to F16 or higher in order to have enough depth of field because I wanted everything to be sharp. And then when they were sitting there, or standing, I said, Okay, now I want you to take a breath. And when you exhale, I want to put your image onto a piece of film.”
Dodger-and-Sparky Haight
Young Man Against Plywood, Haight Ashbury
Katrinka Haraden (Trinka), 19, Haight Street, 1968
Frank French, 16, Panhandle, Haight-Ashbury, 1968
Linda, Straight Theater, 1968
John C. Maynard (JC) in Front of Drugstore Wall, Ashbury Street, 1968
Couple with Child, Golden Gate Park, August 1968
Shenandoah Jordan, Super Adaptoid, Lady Glorious, Matthew, and Steve Culligan in a Convertible, Haight Street, August 13, 1968
Elaine Mayes Talks About Her Work
In this video Elaine talks about her work and the time:
Via: Haight Ashbury Portraits 1967-1968 by Elaine Mayes.
Would you like to support Flashbak?
Please consider making a donation to our site. We don't want to rely on ads to bring you the best of visual culture. You can also support us by signing up to our Mailing List. And you can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. For great art and culture delivered to your door, visit our shop.
