“Life from the Bridge” is an effort to find a silver lining within the dark history of the Golden Gate Bridge. My inspiration began well over a decade ago with a viewing of the controversial documentary “The Bridge” (2006), in which a series of suicides are graphically depicted from the perspective of a camera zoomed in safely on land. When I finally did get to visit the Golden Gate Bridge many years later I got goosebumps, not from the chill or the fog, but from knowing every step I took held a silent and potentially deadly past.
I also sensed its life. I felt the last rays of warmth from an autumn sun on the spiraling razor wire and the cool blue sky above. I stood in awe watching a distant refinery flaring off toxic gray smoke over the San Francisco Bay at sunset. I traced my fingers over a heart etched into the cold orange railing and read out the word beside it: “BYE”.
My approach was to be as discreet as possible, often making images as I passed by with a pocket camera aimed from the hip, or by remaining hidden to catch my subjects unaware. I pass by a lone woman in an orange coat becoming part of her surroundings overlooking the bay, follow a man’s shadow leaning against a wall away from himself, and find myself spotted by a young tourist staring back as the sun momentarily blinds me. With another camera slung over my shoulder, I zoom in on a red-eyed fly as it braces itself against a suspension cable, while across the lanes of endless traffic cyclists race by the patched chain-link fence. I imagine what I’d do if the “big one” hits while I’m trapped in the middle. I take a breath, ignore the voice that whispers memento mori, and take another photo.