An Adams Avenue Street Fair to Remember
Amid the sprawling soundscape of Southern California’s largest free two-day music festival, Safelight Labs / Camera Exposure loomed large amongst the 300 exhibitors staking their claim along the bustling thoroughfare at the Adams Avenue Street Fair, presented by San Diego Foundation, from September 21 to 22. Co-owners Caitie and Rob proselytized all things film photography to the masses, while ringing in five years of operating in University Heights with spanking new merchandise designed by local artist Itzel Islas.
Dispatch from Rob Cowan, Safelight Labs co-owner:
“Whew, what a weekend.
We were on the Avenue from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m., selling t-shirts, pins, patches, stickers, reusable 35mm film cameras, but mostly, connecting with hundreds of San Diegans.
We had a step and repeat at the booth, and were taking film portraits of people stopping by. We connected with a lot of people who might not typically be looking for us.
Saturday was toasty, but we soldiered on. During the day, we were also letting people know about Jake’s gallery show, which we had available to view on Saturday and Sunday and it was great to see people take advantage of the open doors and stop by on both days to view it.
Sunday started out with overcast skies and a little rain, but by midday, the place was jumping! The highlight, for me, of the day was getting to see Strawberry Fuzz play on the Casbah stage. They're a small surf punk band from Venice Beach and they're always a good time.
The highlight of the whole weekend was, of course, seeing friends old and new out on Adams Avenue. Check out some of the film street portraits that caught our eye.
