Rodney, Age 19, Haight-Ashbury, San Francisco

Elaine Mayes

September 3, 1968 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

Elaine Mayes began her quasi-anthropological documentation of social happenings in the San Francisco Bay Area in the early 1960s, focusing particularly on music and youth culture. She always recorded the subject’s name, age, and the precise date, and her portraits of the "hippie" scene in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco are notable for their straightforward, eye-to-eye approach. Behind the protagonist of this quintessential, Vietnam-era portrait are two shopfront businesses on Haight Street, both of which are still in operation more than fifty years later. The Persian Aub Zam Zam, on the right, is an infamous dive cocktail bar frequented in the day by Janis Joplin, The Doors, and Jefferson Airplane.

Artist

Elaine Mayes

Date

September 3, 1968

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, The Lauder Foundation, Leonard and Judy Lauder Fund Gift, 2019