Photos focus on life's details  
  Detailed photos of people document three decades of life in the Bay Area 
  By Alan Lopez 
  STAFF WRITER 

  ALBANY - In the early 1970s, Jim Hair hitchhiked through the United States taking pictures of people and things 
  that interested him, among them, members of the notorious Hells Angels motorcycle club. 

  In the 1980s and 1990s Hair no longer had the will or means to hitchhike, but continued using his oversized 
  camera, snapping photos of events and people in the Bay Area, including demonstrations, parades, fund-raising 
  walks and interesting people he encountered on the street. 

  His photo exhibit at the Albany Community Center, which opens July 21, will be comprised of black-and-white photos 
  taken in the 1970s and color shots from the 1990s. Entitled "Before and After," the showing is, he said, a document 
  of changes in the Bay Area over the last three decades. 

  Hair of course underwent changes himself, including having two children, the oldest of whom is 21. And because 
  they were with him while he took many of his photos, he's doing the exhibit for them, he said. 

  "A lot of work -- they were there when it was made, basically," said Hair, a Berkeley resident who hasn't done an 
  exhibit in 10 years. 

  "My kids have had to sacrifice going to a park or playground -- instead they went with me to walk in middle of 
  Market Street while protesters marched down while trying to stop the bombing of Iraq," Hair said, "or wandering 
  along the street during the pride parade or AIDS walk. 

  "They've been there while I've been pushing the button, and this'll give them a chance to see what it all means." 

  Raised by his grandparents in San Diego, Hair started taking pictures when he was a child himself; his first was of 
  himself and his grandmother at Disneyland. He continued in high school, taking pictures of friends. 

  He graduated from UC Santa Cruz with an independent major in photography, which he said, allowed him to 
  incorporate other subjects such as anthropology into his work. 

  "I see my work as urban anthropology, where I'm documenting people for historical reasons," Hair said. "I've 
  always enjoyed historical photographs and wondered about the people in the photographs. I liked idea that 100 
  years from now people could be looking at photographs and wondering about them or make up stories about 
  people in photographs." 

  His interest in anthropology is coupled with his influences from photographers such as Ansel Adams, who is most 
  famous for taking detailed photos of nature. 

  Hair, however, focuses on the details of people, using a Hasselblad camera, which is more complex, uses a larger 
  negative and captures more detail than a regular 35 mm camera. For example, Hair once took a photo of a man in a 
  San Francisco gay pride parade and thought the photo was focusing on a leather chain. But when Hair enlarged it 
  to see the detail, he realized he was looking at a line of earrings pierced in the man's ear. 

  The amazing thing, Hair said, is that it's something people may not necessarily notice if they were passing the man 
  on the street. 

  "The camera captures for the moment what's really there," he said, "and we stop for a moment and look at the 
  photo we can actually see what was there." 

  The photos in Hair's exhibit will be comprised of 12 oversized prints measuring about 30-by-30 inches, as well as 
  several smaller photographs. The subjects of the photos are eclectic, from the Hells Angels' San Diego chapter circa 
  1975 to color shots of people and places in the '90s. 

  Many of these shots were made possible by the children he had in tow at the time. He said his children made him 
  less threatening to potential subjects, allowing him to walk right up to people he thinks would make a good picture. 

  "We're taught not to talk to strangers," Hair said, "but I think there's so much we could share and I think people 
  are willing to do that." 

  The Albany Arts Commission chooses work to show at the Albany Community Center. The commission tries to find 
  artists that are local. A preview reception will be held Sunday, July 21 from 4 to 6 p.m. The center is located at 1249 
  Marin Avenue. 
 

  Reach Alan Lopez at 510-243-3578 or at alopez1@cctimes.com.  
 
 
 
 
 

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