San Francisco - November 08, 2004

Get the Picture

"Under the Skin" Exhibit

They say every picture tells a story.

And photographer Pat York knows this better than most. Over the past 35 years, she’s captured the giants of film, theater, and literature for the likes of Vogue and Glamour. And now her latest project, “Under the Skin,” on display at the Serge Sorokko Gallery in Union Square, goes beyond familiar faces into unexpected territory.

The show consists of three different groups of photographs: candid celebrity shots (Jane Fonda, Gene Kelly, Tennessee Williams, Andy Warhol, Tom Stoppard), people going about their everyday jobs in the nude (plumbers, waitresses, hairdressers, singers), and cadavers in various stages of dissection (brains, skeletons, teeth). Intense? Yeah. But all the works were inspired by York’s fascination with what it means to be a human being, and the juxtaposition of the pictures proves that when we’re broken down to our fundamental essence, we are all alike.

No matter what’s shimmering off the surface.

“Under the Skin: The Photographs of Pat York” at Serge Sorokko Gallery, 231 Grant Avenue, at Campton Place (415-421-7770). Through December 1. For more information, go to sorokko.com.