Tenderloin photo project shows why neighborhood 'deserves to be loved'

And he’s not doing it alone. Gregory, a visual artist who also spearheaded the mural-covered Veterans Alley in the neighborhood, is recruiting locals who want to participate in the project — not only to be photographed, but to be the photographers themselves.

“The object is for me not to do 2,600 photos of African Americans, but to teach [residents] how to take photos,’’ he said.

Some 50 people are already on board to help him with the project, he said.

Gregory’s project is called 2plus2photo in reference to a quote from George Orwell’s dystopian book, “1984,” about the distortion of reality and truth.

He came up with the name after taking issue with media outlets’ coverage of the Tenderloin during the COVID-19 pandemic, he said, particularly images of its Black residents.

Gregory’s photo project aims to correct what he described as a widespread misconception.

“We’re showing the image of people that live here in SROs, in the small apartments, who are working class, and also disabled people that are constantly exploited by others seeking to do poverty porn,” he said.

Funded through the Dream Keeper Initiative, the goal is to reclaim the neighborhood’s narrative, starting with the photos of its residents that Gregory takes in the Veteran Art and Healing Center he has turned into a studio next door to Veterans Alley.

Gregory also records two-minute videos of participants telling their life stories and sharing their two favorite songs. He said he plans to upload the content to a website, but eventually, he wants to take it further.

By the summer, he said, he wants to take these photos, blow them up, and plaster them onto buildings in the Tenderloin using wheat paste, a type of adhesive used often to paper buildings with flyers or posters.

“Then this becomes a living ongoing project,” he said. “It also directs people that want to take photos of this community to the actual community members right there.”

One such community member is Danita Williams, 56, who has lived in the Tenderloin for the last 25 years.

“I came to the Tenderloin, if I’m being honest, because I was smoking crack back in the day,” she said.

Williams, originally from Cupertino, was in and out of foster homes and group homes throughout her childhood with her twin brother. She said she started doing drugs when she was 18, and over the years earned money as a sex worker, and has been in and out of prison.

She’s sober now, although does indulge in a “nip or two” of alcohol, and lives across the street from Veterans Alley in the Winton Hotel SRO on O’Farrell.

She met Gregory while he was working on painting murals on Veterans Alley and has since become one of his “interns”, which includes everything from helping touch up the alley’s murals to painting sneakers as a creative activity.

“It’s a good program, because it gets my mind off of stuff,” she said.

Williams said she painted a hopscotch court for the popular playground game on the sidewalk of the alley.

“I could be a better person doing constructive things,” she said.

Williams said she wasn’t too keen on getting her photo taken but enjoyed the opportunity to dress up in matching pink outfits with her new 2-month-old puppy, Sugar, for the event. She played with her puppy during the photos, holding her up to the camera and feeding her cheese treats.

It wasn’t until the two-minute video recording began that Williams grew serious.

“I didn’t graduate [high school], I almost did,” she said.”I started prostituting at 16, and got raped, almost killed, and I’m still here at 56 years old.”

But she shared other details too.

“I love animals,” she said. “I like to draw.”

Her two favorite songs, she said, were “Game Time” and “Way Too Real,” both by legendary Oakland rapper Too Short.

While the project is in its infancy, it has already drawn in several others in the community eager to help see it through.

Zachary Sexton said he met Gregory when he began doing organizing work for the Tenderloin People’s Congress a few years ago. When he heard about the photo project, he knew he wanted to participate.

“I started showing up and just helping out because I wanted to see what his process was — I wanted to learn from him,” said Sexton, who has helped photograph some of the project’s subjects and set up the studio space.

A graduate of University of San Francisco, where he studied film and urban studies, Sexton is originally from North Carolina — but he felt drawn to the Tenderloin when he arrived in The City, he said.

“The Tenderloin isn’t just a place where people go when there’s no other option,” he said. “The Tenderloin is a place that people go when they need to find a way to live as themselves, not be judged and to be accepted ultimately in their community ... they’ll take you as you are.”

This is a narrative he said he has heard over and over again from residents and one of the reasons this project in particular spoke to him.

“A lot of people choose to stay in the Tenderloin even when they get into housing and get better jobs and are able to provide themselves for themselves in a different way,” he said. “Because they love the Tenderloin, the Tenderloin deserves to be loved ... and the people in it deserve to be loved.”

As the project moves forward into the next phase, Sexton said, he hopes that this idea will become more apparent to the rest of San Francisco, which might not see the neighborhood for what it has to offer.

“One thing that really stands out to me about this project is the potential for somebody in the neighborhood having the opportunity to walk past a building and see their face on the side of it,” he said. “Not trying to sell anything, not trying to make kind of a mockery out of their image, but just them being happy, them represented in their full self.”