Aperture (Lilac Street)

Toru Sugita

A narrow, crooked alleyway lined in aging, wooden Victorian buildings is a vestige of old San Francisco, a small time capsule in a drastically changed metropolis. At the end of the street looking south sits the sloping, sparsely vegetated hillside of Bernal Heights, a reminder that the viewer is in fact standing in one of the most widely recognized neighborhoods in the famous city: the Mission.

This small street, barely two blocks long, is found very near the intersection of Mission and Cesar Chavez. What was once a working class street is now mostly empty storefronts and warehouses. Yet, as is seen in Toru Sugita’s etching, the familiar slanting shadows, offset by bright California light in the distance, is nearly nostalgic of a time and place that still exists in the shadows. Sugita lends an air of dignity and peace to the small, almost forgotten street.