San Francisco
Anthony Hernandez
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
151 Third Street
September 24, 2016–January 1, 2017
Curated by Erin O’Toole
Anthony Hernandez might be to Los Angeles what Eugène Atget is to Paris. While he has taken photographs in Rome, Baltimore, and elsewhere, Hernandez has, for more than four decades, persistently documented the oft-overlooked urban scenery of his native southern Californiafrom the manicured storefronts and mannequinesque denizens of Beverly Hills to the remnants of homeless encampments improvised on the margins of the urban landscape. This retrospective, a first for the artist and the inaugural special exhibition in the museum’s new Pritzker Center for Photography, suggests that Hernandez, too, is worthy of a closer look. The catalogue accompanying this 160-work overview includes contributions by notable artistic peersamong them Robert Adams and Hernandez’s longtime friend Lewis Baltzalongside reconsiderations of the photographer’s work by Hayward Gallery director Ralph Rugoff and the show’s curator.