Portrait of Ada Pinkston by David Gartner

“I’m a photographer, here’s my card, I’d like to take your portrait.” It’s a bit of a cliché for a photographer to hand someone their card and make the above statement. More so, it’s a cliche for a male photographer to do so with a woman. However, a few months back I handed my card to the artist Ada Pinkston at her “slash” job at a local restaurant (as in artist/waitress).

It took Ada about four months to get back to me. I’m glad she waited as I’m currently working on more environmental portraits in a similar vein as Arnold Newman’s work. Ada paints and creates collages in a very dark attic in her apartment in sunny Bernal Heights. Trying to make due with existing light and adding artificial light to the cramped attic was a fun challenge, but the best images came when we moved a few of her pieces to the bright kitchen.

You can view the entire set here.