Last Saturday afternoon I attended an event at the Arcana bookstore in the Helms Bakery District. I was intrigued by the photographer, Aline Smithson, who was signing her new book, Self & Others: Portrait as Autobiography. My curiosity was rewarded, because Aline turned out to be an interesting woman, and her book is amazing.
“Beginning with her earliest black and white silver gelatin prints, she photographs the world around her considering the poignancy of childhood and the pathos of aging and relationships. The photographer considers all her portraits a reflection of herself and the stories she wants to tell, and in that way, has created a visual language that is her own unique autobiography.”
Helms Bakery, murals
I then walked around and discovered something I had not noticed before, murals reproducing old photographs of the bread delivery trucks, on the wall by the valet parking. And that the furniture store Plummers is now called Scandinavian Designs.
Click on our previous post about the Helms Bakery and go there to explore yourselves, then please comment on your favorite places.
Text and photos by Elisa Leonelli