Focusing on Ukiah
Photographer's lens captures people, need

By SUSAN BAIRD/Special for the Journal

In addition to the many generous neighbors who contributed to the success of the recent fund-raising drive for the Ukiah Community Center Food Bank, we owe thanks to a fine photographer who helped make the ultimate recipients of these gifts more visible for Ukiah Daily Journal readers.

On most Mondays during the UDJ's fund drive, Page 2 featured photos of families who are UCC Food Bank clients (see the Dec. 8, 22 and 29 and Jan. 5 editions). These photos are the work of Bay area photographer Ilka Hartmann, who spent a week here last fall taking pictures and getting acquainted with the UCC and its clients and then donated her photographs to the campaign.

Born in wartime Germany, Hartmann moved to California in the 1960s developing a socially engaged approach to photojournalism she calls "concerned photography." She observes that all too often, when faced with the individuals who take the brunt of huge social problems, such as homelessness and hunger, we look away perhaps because we've been socially conditioned to do so, or because we feel helpless to do anything constructive. Her aim is to raise awareness of social issues and movements, and at the same time, to give faces to the diverse individuals affected by them.

Hartmann has been photographing these movements and issues since coming to the United States, except for a three-semester stint in the 1980s when she returned to Germany to teach photography at the prestigious Graduate School of Fine Arts in Berlin. Her best-known pictures are probably those documenting the occupation of Alcatraz and the American Indian Movement. She has done portraits of well-known people including ecologist/writer Joanna Macy, poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti and musician Taj Mahal. Her work has been published in numerous books, used in films, and featured in many exhibits including a local one opening soon at the California Indian Museum and Cultural Center in north Santa Rosa. Further details on her work and samples of her photos can be seen on her Web site at www.IlkaHartmann.com

Fortuitously, a Ukiah Community Center Board member learned about Hartmann's work and her concern about homelessness when she caught a short radio essay, "Walks of Life," on the Sonoma County public radio station KRCB. Jonah Raskin, the creator and host, quoted Hartmann as saying, "I use images to tell the story of the human condition and to express the soul of the people. I use pictures to reveal the underlying dignity and pride of human beings, especially those people in our society who think of themselves as ugly or unwanted."

A connection was made, an invitation extended, and in late September, Hartmann came to Ukiah. Over a five-day period with the enthusiastic participation of UCC clients she met individuals and families who come to the UCC for food, shelter and other forms of assistance. She visited and photographed them and the places they eat, sleep and gather, pulling together a broad picture of life on the edge in Ukiah.

That picture includes once-homeless families who now proudly have their own homes; people of all ages enjoying the hospitality of Plowshares; and those recovering from addictions at Ford Street transitional housing. Her visits took her along the railroad tracks, under the freeway, to an attractive low-cost apartment complex near the UCC, to a family living in a tent, and to the lines at the Food Bank.

"I came away from this project feeling really good about what the UCC is doing," says Hartmann.

"In this society, regular people have to struggle for themselves, and many people fall through the cracks. Sometimes there's only a short distance between despair and hope, and the UCC helps bridge that distance," she commented. She also was struck, she said, by the multiple connections and mutual support among Ukiah's community organizations and among the people using their services.

Hartmann gave copies of her photos to the participants and has made the entire collection available to the UCC to support its work. The Community Center plans to exhibit her photographs in April.