MTC ART GALLERY

The MTC community art program presents:

Ghosts of the Past

Photos by
Erick Padilla

Nestled between the 880 freeway which cuts through the Port of Oakland and the rundown and forgotten neighborhood known as the “Lower Bottoms,” the train station at 16th and Wood first became an inspiration for me while I resided in the neighborhood of West Oakland back in 2008. Located about four blocks from my former home near Mandela Parkway, the old, dwindling structure sits isolated, enduring the test of time. Its size alone is a great presence amid the aging area. It commands a closer look. Into its history, its function, its service and its detail.

The station, built in 1912, was a major Southern Pacific Railway hub in the Bay Area and served the city of Oakland for centuries before it was shut down in 1989 after severe damage from the infamous Loma Prieta earthquake. It provides a glimpse of what the original neighborhood looked like prior to the development of the Port of Oakland as well as the Bay Bridge. It has also witnessed the introduction and the destruction of the double-decker structure known as the Cypress freeway (demolished after its collapse during the earthquake). Out of service and almost forgotten, the train station is a West Oakland ghost of the past. It is the quintessential subject; spacious, naturally lit, historical, eerie and majestic.

I first gained access to the site while on a photo stroll with two friends back in 2007. It was a quiet Sunday morning; the neighborhood seemed vacant and entry to the gated-off perimeter required an easy scaling of the chain link fence onto the other side. The facade consisted of a roundabout driveway overgrown with weeds and littered with trash. Exploring the exterior from front to back and up close evoked a great sense of mystery and the desire to get acquainted with the site more thoroughly. The only glimpses of the interior were visible through broken glass that had been painted over numerous times with graffiti or through barred window frames. The inside was completely vacant except for a couple of pieces of furniture including the old yellow, raggedy “stationary chair” which became the inspiration for the whole series. Other interior highlights included the snack bar marquee, the railway logo and the nice architectural touches above all the grand doorways, crumbling from neglect over the years and exposing old-style brickwork. The giant east-facing window frames are the largest feature of the station. At the time of the shoot, the morning sun provided a soft luminous glow for a perfect and naturally lit environment.

The visual beauty of the train station exists not only in its original heyday charm but also in its post-closure, urban decay state. Graffiti is perhaps the most prominent example of this and I was able to photograph it throughout the station. It showed up in various forms including the “dog king” artwork located on the interior floor of the main lobby and the large-scale pieces which included “new classical” and “ladder 1 and 2” adorning the exterior. They created a bold juxtaposition of the old and the new. Other elements of urban addition included an art installation made up of real cakes, hung by string which I photographed on the train platform located on the second floor in the rear — “table awaits.” Another made up of balloons and dust was located in the lobby, and is visible in “open space.” The anonymity behind all the post-closure art pieces adds to the mysterious spirit of the location. Collectively, they make up a growing assembly of ghostly objects housed inside a central character.

In recent months, there has been word that the train station has been undergoing major changes; falling into the hands of a private owner, becoming the set of a Hollywood movie and being rented out for exclusive private parties. During a brief visit to the site one month ago, I noticed all the exterior graffiti removed, that access to the interior was denied and a security guard is present around the clock to discourage visitors from wandering too close.

Hopefully, there are plans in the future for restoration and opening it up to the general public to enjoy.
— Erick Padilla

Biography

I was born in El Salvador, Central America, in 1972. Just a few years prior to the start of the civil war that plagued my native country for more than a decade, my family migrated to the United States.

In 1976, San Francisco became our new home. I spent my elementary school years (K-5) in the Excelsior district of the city, a predominantly Hispanic community. I remember spending much of my childhood connected to the hustle and bustle of the neighborhood, frequenting convenience stores for after-school snacks; playing street football with mini Nerf balls; and being chased by stray dogs at Crocker Amazon Park.

Some of my most ingrained memories are about the architecture which surrounds San Francisco and that varies so greatly from neighborhood to neighborhood. I remember taking frequent drives into other districts of the city with my family as a kid. My personal favorite was the Financial District, with the overwhelming size of its buildings and massive crowds of people. Whether from up close or from afar, the Transamerica Pyramid building and the other similarly stacked structures which circle the area define the cityscape.

It wasn’t until junior high school that I got my hands on a video camera and began to explore the streets of San Francisco in order to capture the essence of its urban beauty. I became fascinated with shooting the clean lines and aesthetically balanced features of skyscrapers.

During my high school years, my family relocated to the East Bay where I’ve lived ever since. Primarily an Oakland resident, I have learned to appreciate the “other side of the Bay” for its unique contribution to the overall urban landscape of the Bay Area. The diversity of Oakland can be found in many forms: through its people, its history and its architecture.

After living in West Oakland for a couple of years, I gained an affection for another form of cityscape; a neighborhood filled with history, economic fluctuation and growing gentrification. Visually, it provides a gritty yet strikingly appealing backdrop for urban storytelling. “Ghosts of the Past” was originally inspired by the brick buildings and landmark locations of West Oakland and is part of an ongoing body of photographic work that has kept me busy since 2007.

I have been a student of film and video production since the early 1990s. My forté has always been in experimental visual expression and abstraction; non-traditional ways of “painting” a subject in moving pictures, not necessarily telling a story or narrative but simply presenting itself as art.

I recently shifted my focus to what I have always seen as the “blueprint” of all my work - the still image. Although I’ve been working with digital photography for over 10 years, I took my first class in 2009 at Berkeley City College and have continued to be part of the multimedia department there. I have done freelance work in studio portraiture, company marketing and recently have been photographing gardens as part of the process of growing my own landscape design business. I consider myself a local artist but have aspirations to show more work of personal journeys to other states and abroad, documenting cultural diversity and architectural history.

Photography captures the moment of inspiration in one glance without the need for motion or audio, first through my eyes and later, through the eyes and interpretation of an audience.
— Erick Padilla

Previous shows:

Jelly Fish Gallery, San Francisco, CA
March 2011 – Group show

Jerry Adams Gallery, Berkeley, CA
December 2008 – Group show