This Must Be The Place
Brian L Frank, Jake Ricker, Brandon Ruffin | February 5 - April 6, 2024
To view the exhibition online and inquire about prints, please see our Artsy page.
Opening Reception:
Join us for an opening reception on Thursday, February 8th, 2023. 5:00pm PDT Featuring Brian L Frank, Jake Ricker, and Brandon Ruffin at Leica Store San Francisco.
Brian L Frank
Jake Ricker
Brandon Ruffin
About The Artist
A San Francisco native, Brian L. Frank (b. 1979) has created social documentary projects across the Americas focusing on cultural identity, social inequality, violence, workers rights and the environment.
Most recently, he was awarded a grant by For Freedoms, in collaboration with National Geographic, to continue work on faith and labor in the California central valley migrant worker community. He is also a Professor of Journalism and a Catchlight Global-Fellow. His work with Catchlight, The Pulitzer Center and The Marshall Project has focused on documenting mass incarceration’s effects on minority communities and visuals-based, education curriculum development and instruction in juvenile detention facilities and communities disproportionately affected by mass incarceration.
His 2-year project, Downstream, Death of the Colorado, is held in the permanent collection at the United States Library of Congress and was recognized by POYi with the Global Vision Award. His work has been recognized with numerous other awards from both national and international press organizations.
After completing the Journalism program at SFSU, he worked primarily for The Wall Street Journal from 2008 – 2014 and currently focuses on long-term documentary magazine features in California, the American Southwest, and Mexico.
Website: brianfrankphoto.com
Instagram: @brianlfrank
Artist’s Statement
As you depart the Bay Area’s sparkling silicon valley with its innumerable start-ups innovating the opportunities of the future, you descend into another, less celebrated valley. The cool air off the bay heats as it blows San Francisco’s air pollution south, mixing readily with pesticides emanating from the ground of the nation’s largest agricultural region, the Central Valley. Southward, until one reaches the Mason-Dixon line separating the Central Valley from metropolitan Los Angeles.
The feudal economic system the average worker toils under bears a closer resemblance to the reconstruction era south, than it does to the progressive, worker friendly identity California espouses through lore and Hollywood.
East of Eden is an ongoing, collaborative photo project spanning more than 5 years and 4 visual chapters providing a nuanced look at the migrant community that feeds America. In these chapters, Constellations begins at the roots of forced migration, violence in Mexico. The North Star explores the experience of seeking asylum. The Blinding Light investigates migrant labor and The Light Inside The Temple looks at the role of faith and its connection to family and ancestry.
Visit The Gallery
About The Artist
Jake Ricker is a documentary photographer based in San Francisco, California. With a background spanning nearly a decade as a bike messenger, he seized the unique opportunity to carry his camera wherever he went. This allowed him to capture the everyday fabric of human life, ranging from moments of comedy and romance to instances of riots, violence, police activities, graffiti, and everything in between encountered during his daily deliveries. Over the last six years, Jake has devoted his everyday time to documenting The Golden Gate Bridge for his ongoing project Strange Paradise.
Website: jakericker.com
Instagram: @Jake_ricker
Artist’s Statement
For the past six years, Jake Ricker has dedicated himself to the daily documentation of the Golden Gate Bridge. With an obsessive commitment, he has invested over 12,000 hours and covered more than 12,000 miles along the east sidewalk, camera in hand. Having amassed a portfolio of over 3,000 rolls of film, Ricker’s goal is to unveil his candid street-style photography, presenting the people of the bridge for the first time. His aspiration is to compile this extensive body of work into a cohesive book that reflects the unique vision of a single photographer and captures the essence of a singular place.
Deliberately steering away from the conventional architectural photography that has characterized portrayals of the Golden Gate Bridge for the past 85 years, Ricker recognizes its iconic status and multifaceted significance. The bridge serves various purposes for different individuals, ranging from a daily commuting path to a recreational outdoor space, a romantic backdrop for dates, proposals, weddings, proms, and graduation photos. Unfortunately, for some, it becomes a site for ending one’s life.
During his daily walks, Ricker seamlessly blends in as an average tourist with a camera. Unintentionally, he has played a crucial role in preventing suicides, having assisted over 90 people. This unexpected aspect of the project was never part of the initial plan, surprising even Ricker himself. Three years ago, he made a life-altering decision to quit his job and dedicate all his time to the bridge, transforming the project into his life’s mission. With the goal of completing the project within the next year, coinciding with the installation of the suicide net, Ricker continues to capture the diverse stories embedded in the Golden Gate Bridge’s fabric.
About The Artist
Brandon Ruffin is a photographer, Web-3 futurist, award winning filmmaker, and writer based in Oakland California. Currently a Leica Ambassador, he fell in love with the visual medium over 17 years ago. Brandon currently works on a research team in the area of Computational Photography at Google pushing the capabilities of machine learning and traditional photography.
Brandon finds himself drawn to stories that dissect humanity, most often through the world of portraiture and photojournalism. Brandon has given lectures at academic institutions such a Cal Berkeley as well as instructional workshops inside tech spaces such as Apple, VSCO, and Google. Brandon has a passion for working with marginalized communities and in neighborhoods that are often overlooked and underrepresented.
Brandon is a contributor for publications such as Rolling Stone, New York Times, and the SF Chronicle.
Website: ruffdraftvisuals.com
Instagram: @ruffdraft
Artist’s Statement
In this world of fake things we all crave the possibility of something real. Even in the fantasy of civilization we have to know that there is something in the world waiting to crack our souls open and allow everything that is “us” to soak the soil and seep deep down into its roots.
These days reality and fiction are so deeply entangled that you can’t see the difference. What do you do when you can no longer see? You must feel—I only want to feel the brutality and utter ecstasy of if what real life has to bring.
Everything else hollows me out. It cheapens my spirit —I choose to retain the value of my soul.
