Mike Kepka's photos have soul. From Scotty Grabell, a freelance bunny, to Renée de la Prade, a dancing, singing accordion player, the people he's chosen to profile in his weekly column "The City Exposed" at the San Francisco Chronicle give an honest and loving portrayal of the city.
"San Francisco is almost like the emerald city with all this mystique," says Kepka, who has been at the paper since 1999. "Around every corner there is a weirdo who's ripe for this kind of storytelling."
For Kepka, "weirdo" is an endearing term. Because, in a way, he's one himself.
"He's just as eccentric as any of the characters that he reports on," says Judy Walgren, the director of photography at the Chronicle.
Whether it's wearing ass-tight pink jeans and rabbit ears for his rock band's shows or his enthusiastic dancing, Kepka's not afraid to let it all hang out and insert himself into any number of crazy situations. He fits right in with his subjects on the street. He finds a way to humanize his subjects while exploring their unique styles. (Full disclosure, Kepka is a close friend of Wired's online director of photography, Jim Merithew)
"I always want to go beyond their surface weirdness and find out what makes them tick," he says.
Kepka has created a rich archive that delves into the city like no one has since the days of Herb Caen. While Kepka is adamant about not putting himself in the same category as the legendary columnist, it's difficult not to make the comparison.
"Mike loves people and he has the gift of gab," says Walgren. "People like to tell him more than they need to be telling him. Herb Caen probably had the same gift."
Not all of Kepka's stories are about strange characters. Often his subjects are just normal folks with normal lives. His talent lies in discovering the kernel that makes his subjects interesting and fits them into his larger narrative.
"Each little story is another piece of the clue to figuring out what San Francisco is," he says.
When he first developed the column, Kepka says he wanted to use it to create his own personal voice and niche at the paper. Too often, he says, newspaper photographers are looked at as hired help or the "service bureau" and aren't trusted as their own journalists.
"Most of the time you get assignments and are told what to do," he says. "But I was really looking for a little ownership."
He spent eight months developing a prototype before he launched "The City Exposed" and for a while it flew under the radar. He was allowed to pursue the project, but it was never a central feature of the paper.
That all changed when Walgren was hired. She immediately saw the potential of "Exposed" and pushed Kepka to expand. The column today still runs a photo and a short story in the Bay Area section of the Sunday paper, but online it has grown from four photos to a gallery of 10 to 15 images plus the story and a video that Kepka shoots and edits.
To his own surprise, Kepka says, the video is actually what he enjoys most. It adds a new layer to his storytelling and moves the audience one step closer into the hearts and minds of his subjects.
He's embraced video so completely that Walgren has taken him out of the daily rotation of photographers and made him the paper's unofficial multimedia guru, allowing him to pursue both short- and long-term projects.
She reserves him for larger multimedia stories like the baseball playoffs and the 40th anniversary of Chez Panisse, and has also asked him to shoot a longer-form documentary about the well-known Gold Dust Lounge, which is currently fighting an eviction notice.
"Kepka just drank [multimedia] like a fine bourbon," Walgren says. "I'm always trying to push people past their level of comfort and Mike seems to take punishment in stride whereas other people are definitely screaming."
Since becoming a blog, "The City Exposed" now features tidbits Kepka comes across as he's reporting, whether it's an iPhone photo from the field or a re-post from the archive. The concept and reach of the column continues to expand as he gains more and more traction with readers. Before the switch, the column used to get a few thousands hits each week online. In contrast, Kepka's most recent post racked up nearly 218,000 hits.
"I still get excited every day about meeting new people," he says. "And that's what makes me keep wanting to do the project."
