Bay to Breakers is decadent and depraved

 

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Every year San Francisco is host to a slew of events which bring out the deviant in all of us. Celebrating eccentricity is a tradition long standing in San Francisco.  In the City one can to be decadent and depraved. As long is its called a race.



As soon as the race began, it also began to unravel. San Francisco City public servants herded everyone toward the other end of the city, towards the ocean. They seemed to be picking up all manners of leftover running equipment. It seemed this race left a trail of destruction.





The streets were littered with wantonness. Towards the ocean I managed to link up with Andy, self declared king of Bay to Breakers. He was dressed in his native lederhosen and yelling obscenities towards the more aggressive patrons of the race. I had met Andy many years earlier and was familiar with his people-skills. Concluding there was safety in numbers, we walked with the crowd towards the ocean.



Halfway to the halfway point, the crowd slowed down and music started blaring out of windows in from near by homes.  Realizing we had arrived in a residential neighborhood, I braced my camera preparing for the worse.

Fear told me that the crowd would tear these homes apart, looting coin, alcohol and women like mushroom crazed Vikings. Lucky it was 11am and the liquor stores throughout the parade route were trading money for alcohol.

The homes themselves had, in fact been take over by runners of all shapes and sizes. Parties were in full swing inside these dwellings. With the sudden excitment of fear subsided, the crowd continued flowing towards the other end of San Francisco.

The air had a constant smell of medicinal medication. There seems to be a large amount of sick people at this race, I concluded to young Andy. It was difficult to tell however because everyone was running. Not a practice typical of a infirm individual. I remember thinking this out loud to Andy. Someone near by shook their head and filled the belly of a flamingo full of alcohol, then proceeded to drink the alcohol from the gullet of the great bird.



These were dangerous people indeed.

My purpose for attending this race had been to create portraits of the attendees but that  quickly evolved into a vast plan to capture the essence of San Francisco. Then, the very same idea quickly degraded into a series of photographs depicting shoes.

I soon realized that I  had ran too far in this race. My march into the ocean ended in a large forest. Everyone I asked said it was a park. I wanted to know where the ocean was, and when we would jump in. They just pointed me back towards the City.



The Bay to Breakers is a hostile environment to photograph. I had been shooting the entire route to the ocean however, somewhere along the way, the race had taken a great toll on me. I had to be put on the first bus back to Berkeley.

Perhaps next year I will be better prepared for the onslaught of debauchery and the slippery slope of running in these conditions. Preparation is the first step towards running in San Francisco.

Below are some of the portraits from the 2010 Bay to Breakers:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/danfig/sets/72157625195784699/