That said a lot of these photos are not from that part of the loin, they are more towards Polk Street (i.e. hipsterville) or up towards the tourist infested Union Square, which are considerably safer than, say, Turk and Jones. Real nice video though, I hope more of this type of work comes out of the Loin.

The incentive for this project is to engage with The Tenderloin and to interact with members who live in the community; be it on the street, in an apartment or an SRO. The means by which we are engaging with the neighborhood is through the mediums of photography and film.

We aren’t trying to stereotype the Tenderloin as being a bad or dangerous community, nor are we trying to directly change the community, ie. to take drugs off the streets, or to put an end to homelessness, both of which are undeniable problems that live within the community. Instead we are trying to take small steps through our project to help shine a positive light on the community and to try and give some of the members a voice, a face, and to share their stories with the world. Ultimately we are trying to showcase the community both creatively and positively, while also remaining honest and objective to what life is actually like on the streets there.

We will be releasing a series of short-documentaries on the website over the course of the next couple months to further share the stories of the subjects that have been photographed as part of the project.

This is a young project and it’s continually re-defining itself as it evolves. We are now working to put up a paypal account on the site so that people who want to get involved can help contribute to the project.

We appreciate all of the feedback and are inspired to see so many people reacting to the imagery.

Thank you,

Sean & John

Good work fella!

Alex Matthews