San Francisco Bay Area Labor Project by Tom Griscom

This body of work began as a collaboration with the San Francisco State University’s Labor and Archive Research Center. The images highlight places of labor in the Bay Area. Visually I have been documenting places that are from the early labor and union sites of the 1930s, to the war effort of the 1940s and the second gold rush that followed.

Initially, the focus of the project was the Longshoreman and their work places, meeting halls, and the site of the Maritime and General Strike of 1934. However, with the Longshoremen’s diminished power, heavy industry and shipping relocated to Oakland, and the rise of the financial and business centers in San Francisco, the Bay Area has experienced a divergence and diversity of wealth, power and population. Because of this I expanded my research to focus on other significant industries that have created Diasporas to the area which include WWII buildings and structures, the financial institutions created by the Gold Rush, and Silicone Valley office parks that replaced the valley’s orchards.

Tom Griscom is a New York City based photographer.
To view more of Tom's work, please visit his website.