Home to Vice.

I realized it was a bit unfair to my readers to assume that everyone would be able to make it to San Francisco just for Introductions, the husband's opening tomorrow night at Root Division. While I did give you all a sneak peak, I might as well give you a look at the final piece since you are already here.

For all of the images, go here.

Chris' piece is about the Barbary Coast, a district that became the stomping ground for treasure seekers coming to San Francisco during the California Gold Rush. It is now infamous for its seedy, lawless and wanton past. We took photos of his piece at Crissy Field and Portsmouth Square, two different locations along the Barbary Coast Trail. By placing himself in the scene, he is equating the hopes of fame and fortune for prospectors of days of yore to the same dreams he had when he arrived in San Francisco as an artist.

(In case you were wondering, yes, I took the photos and I made the signs. For future reference, if there is type or photography involved in any of Chris' stuff, I did it.)

Since the images were melding the 1850s and the present, I wanted them to feel like they didn't belong to any particular era. And because there was so much to look at in the original photographs, I used the vignetting to control the focus. To do all of this, I used two Photoshop actions, Vintage and Seventies, that I downloaded from Pioneer Woman Photography (great free find from Pilar at snappy snap snap). If you want the exact formula I used, just let me know. I don't want bore the rest of you with opacity percentages and the like.

The photographs are installed along with the stage, stars, clouds and of course, the gigantic prospector heads. I'll post some pics of the final installation at Root Division next week.