Press Project
My first job was as a delivery boy for The Vacaville Reporter, my town paper. Growing up, I scanned it daily to read the printed details of our sleepy community. Recognizing neighbors names, sports scores from my high school team, events of major importance and small significance - it solidified my sense of place. When I began photographing my hometown newspaper printing presses as an adult, I was overcome with that same feeling of belonging to something larger than myself. In the presses I saw machines saturated with the events of the community, serving as a marker of time and of my own history as well.
Newspaper presses are the silent watchers of our communities - they archive the day-to-day narratives of our cities and towns. The dust collecting within them is the debris of our history. Each press is soaked with memories and the psychic energy of information.
By photographing these presses I am not just photographing smudges and patina, I am preserving the physical evidence of a once proud and powerful industry. In the time before the 24 hour news cycle, deadlines ruled the day and what you put in print had a permanence only erased by a retraction. The newspaper industry has been on a steady course of consolidation as readership and subscriptions dwindle in favor of receiving information digitally. The age of the printing press is by no means over, but sadly, as newspapers disappear, so does a unique component of our shared experience.
Scroll to the down to view videos of the presses accompanied by interviews of the pressmen, employees and owners of these amazing facilities.
Press Project Videos
As part of the Press Project I was fortunate enough to have made a 16 page Tabloid at Howard-Quinn here in San Francisco. Howard-Quinn shut its doors in December of 2012 and the Tabloid was the last job to leave its four color press. The work done on it by the staff is immaculate. It was such an honor to have such an experienced crew help me through my first newspaper printing experience. The loss of the last Union newspaper printing shop in San Francisco is symptomatic of the industry at large, while it is a vanishing medium it produces a product giving it a permanent historical record . The process of making the Tabloid is documented in the video and you can even see appearances by myself. I owe a debt of gratitude to the staff of Howard-Quin and H&H Imaging.
Howard Quinn is unique among the Printing companies I am visited for this project. It has been in business in the same location for more than 50 years and is one of the last Union shops in the Bay Area. I tend look at the larger effects of printing presses on society but print companies are focused on the job of printing. Howard Quinn took pride in servicing their customers, meeting deadlines, and providing a superior product. One thing that is hard to convey in pictures is that the printing industry has supported many families and individuals for many years and its decline has a human toll. With job insecurity at an all time high Howard Quinn was there for its employees over the years, something fewer companies these days can say. Howard Quinn Company was an amazing treasure and a part of San Francisco history.
This is the second set of interviews recorded at Howard Quinn Company. When I recorded the experiences of the Pressmen and Managers at Howard Quinn I was left with a sense of melancholy. Companies which have strong commitments to their employees are a rarity in an increasingly transient workplace. Many of the Pressmen have worked here the majority of their careers. How many of us will be able to say that about our careers?
The video footage features the Presses and the Pressmen of Fricke-Parks press in Union City California.
This was my first to the San Francisco Newspaper Printing Company’s satellite printing space. I was immediately struck by the large space which houses these presses. The warehouse is still turning out considerable product, but you can see the traces of an even more robust past. I have come to learn that dirty presses are busy presses and it is really a badge of honor and productivity. Great thanks to David, John, Fermin and the rest of the crew, you guys get it done.
This is the main printing facility for The San Francisco Newspaper Printing Company. They print the Examiner and a vast array of local dailies and weeklies
This is from my first video shoot at the Vacaville Reporter. I was a paperboy in the 80's delivering papers printed on some of the same presses you see here. Thank you to everyone at the Vacaville Reporter for access to your printing facilities.
This the first video shot at Howard Quinn company in San Francisco. It was the last remaining union print shop in San Francisco before it's demise in 2012.