Arnold Genthe (German, 1869-1942).
Waiting for the Cable Car, Chinatown, San Francisco, circa 1904
Warm toned gelatin silver print, signed in ink on the image, framed.
9 x 7 1/2 in. (23 x 19cm)
16 1/2 x 14 1/2 in. (42 x 37 cm/frame)
'The children wear festive attire appropriate for the New Year holidays. The appearance of the fire hydrant and the 'x' pattern of the ironwork railing around a stairwell to a below-ground basement indicates that the family is standing on the northwest corner of the intersection of Clay and Dupont Streets. As Genthe’s title suggests, they are probably waiting for a westbound cable car on the Clay St. line which ran up and down Nob Hill to Chinatown'. (Library of Congress).
Arnold Genthe began making photographs of San Francisco's Chinatown soon after he emigrated to the United States in 1895 from his native Germany. Many of the Chinatown photographs were taken with a concealed camera, which allowed him to capture on film the old-world traditions and natural flow of life in an ethnic enclave.
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