WILLIAM GEDNEY
Communal in Haight-Asbury at Howard Greenberg
Between the years 1966 and 1967, William Gedney acclimatized to the pace of life in which the youth of San Francisco flowed. It was just prior to the Summer of Love and young people from around the country flocked to the West Coast city to live as they desired, unencumbered by conformist and conservative pressures. Within this time, Gedney nestled into his surroundings, befriending the untethered young people of the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood to ultimately capture more than two thousand images. Now, over 50 years later, A Time of Youth is presented by the Howard Greenberg Gallery after making its publishing debut in the form of a photo book.
As goes the tragic tale of the artist achieving fame a beat too late, William Gedney’s photographic work did not receive its due recognition until after his passing. Born into the quaint town of Greenville, New York in the year 1932, Gedney later relocated to New York City where he completed his college degree. Following his acceptance of a Guggenheim Fellowship, Gedney’s long-term photographic embarkment to San Francisco became a reality. Of the original mass of images captured, A Time of Youth was eventually whittled down to 87 photographs.
Lisa McCarty of Southern Methodist University and editor of the book comments on the subjects captured in Gedney’s images, noting, “We can see the intensity of these relationships in singular gazes, gestures, and embraces, both on the streets of San Francisco and in makeshift shared beds on apartment floors. Within these improvised spaces, swagger and self-consciousness are rendered visible through Gedney’s tight framing and sympathetic eyes.”
While common representations display the youth culture of the late 60s riddled in flowers and as carefree embodiments of peace and love, Gedney captured an alternative view of the younger generation — one which portrayed a group of people lacking exuberant bouyancy and instead, encompassing wistful melancholy. Shot in black-and-white, the images are intimate, enveloped in an air of pensive sincerity — as if the subjects knew even then the consequential role they would play in the sculpting of American culture.
