Previously located on Market Street in San Francisco, SF Camerawork’s opening at Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture reflects the organization’s ongoing commitment to being an integral part of the San Francisco arts community, and to introducing new audiences to thought-provoking and boundary-pushing photography.

SF Camerawork’s new headquarters allows the organization to further its engagement with photographic artists and arts community members, highlighting the long history of San Francisco and the surrounding areas as an essential place for photography. With more space dedicated to exhibitions, SF Camerawork can work with a wider range of artists, and deepen its impact by showing the work of emerging and early-career Bay Area artists.

SF Camerawork is a long-standing leader in the San Francisco arts milieu, committed to provoking discovery, experimentation, and exchange through exhibitions and experiences for all who value new ideas in photography. The organization was founded in 1974 by a collective of artists who welcomed experimental photography, unconventional techniques, and sociopolitical themes and who fostered a range of alternative styles and approaches. The essence of the founders’ vision remains at the core of SF Camerawork even as the organization has adapted to the changing scope of photography and surrounding cultural landscape.

For more than 45 years, SF Camerawork has provided a launching pad for many artists’ careers, supplying invaluable financial support, exhibition space, curation, and patronage. In its early years, SF Camerawork was the first organization in the Bay Area to host exhibitions and lectures by controversial but ultimately highly influential artists such as Sally Mann, Robert Mapplethorpe, Susan Meiselas, and Joel-Peter Witkin. More recently, the organization has presented the first West Coast exhibitions for artists including John Chiara, Binh Danh, Erica Deeman, Jennifer Karady, Jason Lazurus, Chris McCaw, Wang Ning De, and Meghann Riepenhoff — artists who have emerged as leaders of a new generation gaining international prominence.