Photo book provides a `then and now' commemorative of 1906 San Francisco earthquake
"After the Ruins, 1906 and 2006: Rephotographing the San Francisco Earthquake and Fire." By Mark Klett with Michael Lundgren et al. The University of California Press. 134 Pages. $49.95 Hardcover, $24.95 Paperback.
———
Just before dawn on April 18, 1906, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck San Francisco. It lasted "only" 40 seconds, but was followed by three days of widespread fires.
Together, the trembling and the burning destroyed three-quarters of what was then the largest city in the American West.
On this centennial of what has remained one of the most famous disasters in U.S. history comes "After the Ruins," which compares San Francisco then and now by pairing archival images made shortly after disaster struck with modern-day photos of the same sites taken from the precise location and vantage point at about the same time of day.
The result is a remarkable album of images that show not only the devastation the city suffered, but the various ways in which it has recovered and risen from the rubble.
The current photographs were taken by Mark Klett and his assistant, Michael Lundgren, beginning in May 2003. Many of the archival images on which their photos were based are from a series made by Arnold Genthe, whom Klett calls "the best-known photographer in San Francisco at the time" and "the photographer who made the most coherent record of the disaster."
The 48 pairs of plates in this large-format volume are placed on opposing pages; the newer image is on the left, so viewers are taken back in time, not moved forward.
Some of the contrasts are quite dramatic. The intersection of Post and Kearney is busy and built-up in the current photo, far removed from the post-quake scene in which one building has been reduced to a single skeletal wall, its fallen bricks obliterating any trace of a thoroughfare.
Similarly, the modern photo of the streetscape in front of 821 Leavenworth looks normal, with its parked cars and pedestrians, and even a graffiti-marred parking-rules sign. But the companion photo from 1906 shows little more than a stone stoop, leading nowhere, surrounded by a jumble of debris on a mostly leveled landscape.
In contrast, a 1906 photo shows a private house on Jackson Street that seems to have persevered; it is still recognizable as the handsome structure in today's image. And little change also seems to have come to the children's carousel in Golden Gate Park (although it's now partly obscured by a stately tree).
Accompanying the images is a Q-and-A with Klett in which he explains how he became involved in the project; reveals his method for selecting the archival images to rephotograph; and describes the advantages and disadvantages of photographing in a busy city, particularly the problem traffic poses for those setting up equipment in the middle of a street.
The book includes the essay "Hell on Earth" in which Philip L. Fradkin describes the disaster and its aftermath, aided by eyewitness accounts; and the reaction of photographers, both amateur and professional, including then-4-year-old Ansel Adams, whose lifelong memory of the event was a bloody nose incurred when he fell onto a low brick wall.
In another essay, "Ruins of Memory," Rebecca Solnit describes the nature and meaning of ruins, both natural and manmade, intentional and accidental. ("A few trees were snapped by the earthquake, but forests were laid low for the hasty rebuilding of San Francisco.") She also supplies a history of major fires and earthquakes that have hit the city before and since the one-two punch of 1906.
Rounding out this informative and oddly addictive book are maps that locate the sites which were photographed, an invaluable aid for those not averse to climbing a few hills and dodging some cable cars to revisit and perhaps rephotograph these sites themselves.
———
The book accompanies an exhibit that will be on show through May 28 at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.
———
On the Net:
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco: http://www.thinker.org