About
Thirty-six photographs of Sutro Tower, each from a different place in San Francisco. The name is borrowed from Hokusai's Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji and Rivière's Thirty-six Views of the Eiffel Tower; others have photographed this tower before.
How it works
On the first of each month one view goes to Substack subscribers: the photograph, half a day around the place it was taken from, then the field notes on the shot. A month later it is released here for everyone. Until then a view shows only its number and its dates. View 36 is released here in October 2029.
Every view runs first on Substack for paid subscribers and stays paid there. View 01 is the exception: free everywhere, field notes included, so you can see what a finished view looks like. Once a view is released here, the photograph is never behind anything.
About me
I'm Fred Taylor. I live in San Francisco and photograph it, mostly on Leica cameras. Sutro Tower turns up behind half the city: over the trees in the parks, at the end of a street, through the fog. This series is me going looking for it on purpose, from thirty-six places.
The tower
- 977 feet tall.
- Built from 1971 to 1973; first broadcast on 4 July 1973.
- Owned by Sutro Tower, Inc., founded in 1968 by the owners of KTVU, KRON, KPIX and KGO.
- The tallest structure in the city until Salesforce Tower in 2018.
This project is not affiliated with Sutro Tower, Inc.
Rights
Photographs and text © Fred Taylor. Ask before using them anywhere else: hello
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