"...this is where the shamans dwell, and where the angels roost, where masterpieces are created, and terrible tirades loosed..."
photo
below the streets
These photographs are my attempt to document a part of the city that remains unseen to the majority of people who reside in the Bay Area. “Below the Streets” captures those places and moments that exist in the dark underbelly of everyday life. People become shadows and silhouettes, black ghosts making their way through tunnels and underpasses, marking their names on the walls to document their passage. Strange writings leap from columns and corridors, reflections of ancient shamanic cave rituals. The streets become modern-day caves, capturing the expressions of urban nomads in scrawled hieroglyphics. But with the dark must come light, whether piercing through stairways leading aboveground, illuminating columns patterned with graffiti, or artificially lighting the path for a lone tunnel wanderer. This is a view of the city found beyond barbed wire fences, deep underground, below the streets.
-Sean McMahon, 2001There are 9 images in this gallery.
Last updated: Mon, 06/29/2009 - 22:38
street world
This is an eclectic collection of photos originally gathered for submission to the book "Street World: Urban Culture and Art From Five Continents", by Roger Gastman, Caleb Neelon, and Anthony Smyrski. Though the photos were eventually dropped from the final production version of the book, and more photos have been added to the original set, these images remain vital visual representations of the "concrete jungle" which this modern man calls home.
-Sean McMahon, 2009There are 26 images in this gallery.
Last updated: Thu, 07/02/2009 - 00:54
verano mexicano
In the summer of 2006 I had the privilege of traveling to Mexico for 5 weeks to document the presidential elections as part of a contingent from the New College of California Media Studies program. While I acted as an audio engineer and film editor for most of our audio and video documentary work, I was also able to capture digital photographs with a small point and shoot camera. These photographs are my digital memories of that unforgettable "mexican summer".
-Sean McMahon, 2009There are 12 images in this gallery.
Last updated: Mon, 06/29/2009 - 21:12
permanent vacation
These photos are my favorite picks from 2009. They represent my philosophy of life lived as permanent vacation.
-Sean McMahon, December 23rd, 2009There are 32 images in this gallery.
Last updated: Sun, 03/07/2010 - 05:14
