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At the scene of the 1939-1940 Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1938.Alfred Eisenstaedt—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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At the scene of the 1939-1940 Golden Gate International Exposition, San Francisco, 1939.Horace Bristol—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Ferry near the the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge, 1941.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Fong-Fong bakery and ice cream parlor, 1941.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Diego Rivera working on pencil sketches for huge mural depicting Pan-American unity, Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, 1941.Peter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Shipyard ironworkers, San Francisco, 1942.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Streets of San Francisco, 1942.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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San Francisco, 1942.Hansel Mieth and Otto Hagel—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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A civilian observer and plane-spotter, San Francisco, 1942.Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Cemetery of Mission Dolores, San Francisco, 1942.Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Newspapers welcome Madame Chiang Kai-Shek to San Francisco, 1943.Hansel Mieth—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Troops Embarking from San FranciscoPeter Stackpole—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Author Gertrude Atherton and her dog outside of her home in San Francisco, 1946.Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Cable car turnaround, San Francisco, 1947.Charles E. Steinheimer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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View of San Francisco, 1947.Andreas Feininger—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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San Francisco, 1947.Charles E. Steinheimer—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Drive-in theater, San Francisco, 1948.Allan Grant—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Golden Gate Bridge at sunset, 1951.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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South San Francisco, 1951.Margaret Bourke-White—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Dancing the mambo at San Francisco's Macumba Club, 1954.Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Pacific Heights, 1955.Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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The Tin Angel, a waterfront nightclub, San Francisco, 1955.Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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View of the Golden Gate Bridge toward the hills of Marin County, 1955.Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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San Francisco 1956Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Getting one's hair done in San Francisco, 1956.Leonard McCombe—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Lawrence Ferlinghetti at City Lights, 1957.Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Kenneth Rexroth at a poetry reading, 1957.Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Housing construction in San Francisco, 1958.Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Looking at Alcatraz, 1958.Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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San Francisco Giants-ball TeamGeorge Silk—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Opening of the boating season on San Francisco Bay, 1958.Nat Farbman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Opening Day at Candlestick Park, 1960.Allan Grant—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, 1962.Walker Evans—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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'Beatles' at press conference in San Francisco airport.Bill Ray—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Brand new BART, 1967.John Dominis—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Vietnam War protestors, San Francisco, 1967.Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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San Francisco, 1969.Lee Balterman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Above San Francisco, 1969.Lee Balterman—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Black Panthers protest, San Francisco, 1970.Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Author Richard Brautigan with his daughter, San Francisco, 1970.Vernon Merritt III—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Dianne Feinstein, San Francisco mayoral race, 1971.Michael Rougier—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
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Anti-war march, San Francisco, 1972.Ralph Crane—The LIFE Picture Collection/Getty Images
Today, South of Market, a wedge-shaped neighborhood in northwest San Francisco, is home to tech giants such as Twitter and Airbnb, but for most of its existence it was a very different kind of place.
Once famous for its “factories, slums, laundries, machine shops, boiler works, and the abodes of the working class,” as writer Jack London noted in 1909, it changed dramatically in the 1960s when many businesses that called the district home moved out and a community of artists and gay men and women emerged in its place. In the late 1970s, in the face of then expanding dereliction and as part of efforts to remake the neighborhood, city authorities condemned many of the residential hotels that had become a hallmark of the area, displacing many residents and small businesses.
It was at this time that photographer Janet Delaney moved to the area, seeking cheap rent. Between 1978 and 1986 she captured a neighborhood at the cusp of change. One that was not salubrious — she was held up at knifepoint and had her camera stolen — but one where behind the rough edges, a small but strong community of families and businesses still thrived.
“In my first two years of college I spent a lot of time, like many people in the early 70s, thinking of formal issues, like structure, and how a photograph is constructed,” Delaney says, recalling the kind of aesthetically-driven photography she was making up until she moved to the area. ” [I was] responding to minimalism, and how photography addresses these concepts.”
Later, a six-month solo trip to conflict-riddled parts of Central America left a deep impression on Delaney, and saw her take a socially-conscious turn with her work. Upon returning, the often-tough lives of her neighbors seemed to take on a new significance and she felt the need to document them. Using a large 4×5 view tripod-mounted camera, she made portraits and architectural views and shot the interiors of local businesses, in an attempt to document life in the neighborhood.

The images that emerged are as frank as they are beautiful and are a testament to a once gritty, even vibrant neighborhood. Indeed, they bear an uncanny resemblance to pre-war documentary photography. It is perhaps all down to the camera, Delaney says: a bulky contraption that takes up a large amount of space but yields finely detailed images. And for the photographer, the ever obvious camera itself became an important part of the documentation process.
“The camera gave a sense of honor to a neighborhood that nobody ever considered, a neighborhood the city felt it could demolish,” Delaney says.
By 1988, with rents getting ever higher, Delaney, now a mother, moved across the bay to Berkeley. “I wouldn’t have left if that rent hadn’t been so high,” she adds, feeling that she was pushed out of her old neighborhood by rising prices. And that process doesn’t seem to be slowing as the neighborhood, now known as SoMa, continues to gentrify.
“I’ve continued to photograph South of Market,” Delaney says. “There’s more of a bustle, there’s more going on. But it’s really expensive. People are moving into high rises. It’s a more elegant, beautiful, [but] slightly alienating environment.”
Janet Delaney: South of Market runs until July 19, 2015 at the De Young Museum in San Francisco
Myles Little is an Associate Photo Editor for TIME
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