The Julie Project

On Thurs­day, May 20th you are invited to join us for the exhi­bi­tion open­ing of

Darcy Padilla’s riv­et­ing doc­u­men­tary “The Julie Project.”

17 years in the mak­ing, this unique and award-winning project fol­lows the life of one woman, Julie Baird. The story begins in 1993, when Darcy meets an 19 year-old run­away with a new­born in her arms in the lobby of an SRO in San Francisco’s Ten­der­loin. Over the years Darcy has pho­tographed Julie’s com­plex story of AIDS, mul­ti­ple homes, rela­tion­ships, drugs, poverty, births, deaths, loss and reunion. Fol­low­ing Julie from the back­streets of San Fran­cisco to the back­woods of Alaska.

An epic and pow­er­ful story exhib­ited in its entirety for the first time.

WHEN: Thurs­day, May 20th, 2010

TIME: 5:00 to 7:30 pm

WHERE: Fifty­Crows Gallery 49 Geary St, Suite 225   San Fran­cisco, CA 94108

Darcy Padilla is a doc­u­men­tary pho­tog­ra­pher and pho­to­jour­nal­ist liv­ing in San Fran­cisco. Pub­lished in Time, Rolling Stone, and The New Yorker, among oth­ers. Her hon­ors include an Alexia Award, Soros Fel­low­ship and Guggen­heim Fellowship.

Darcy Padilla’s unflinch­ing por­trayal of Julie Baird is one of the most in-depth, vis­ceral, and cap­ti­vat­ing doc­u­men­taries in recent memory.

Her work has received numer­ous grants and awards includ­ing an Alexia Foun­da­tion for World Peace & Under­stand­ing Award, Open Soci­ety Insti­tute Indi­vid­ual Fel­low­ship, and a John Simon Guggen­heim Fel­low­ship.

The lat­est iter­a­tion of this para­mount work will be on dis­play at Fifty Crows Gallery, begin­ning with our May 20th open­ing. Doors will be open from 4 PM to 7:30 PM. Fifty Crows would like to wel­come every­one to join us in this momen­tous event. We hope to see you there.

About the project:

JULIE - “For the last 16 years I have been doc­u­ment­ing the life of an AIDs-afflicted woman, Julie Baird. Julie has been on her own since her sex­u­ally abu­sive step­fa­ther threw her through a glass win­dow when she was 14 years old. She ran away from home, lived on the street, used drugs, con­tracted HIV, and had five chil­dren. When I first met Julie in Feb­ru­ary 1993 in the lobby of a SRO hotel in San Francisco’s Ten­der­loin, she was 18 years old and had just given birth to her first child, Rachel. Julie and Jack Fyffe, the 19 year-old father were both HIV pos­i­tive. Rachel, they said, was their main rea­son for living.

Through­out the years I have pho­tographed Julie’s com­plex story of AIDS, abu­sive rela­tion­ships, drug use, mul­ti­ple homes and poverty. A vic­tim of child abuse, Julie often neglected her own chil­dren. A high school dropout, she depends on wel­fare to feed her fam­ily. HIV-positive, she fights to stay off drugs.

Julie’s is a story of a sur­vivor. The telling of it enriches the under­stand­ing of the poor­est and most des­per­ate among us. I am con­tin­u­ing to doc­u­ment Julie’s life and it is my fer­vent hope that Julie’s story inspires a greater aware­ness of the plight of peo­ple like her.”