Exhibit renders portrait of Alameda

Oakland Tribune, Apr 20, 2007  by Kristin Bender

On a cold and rainy weekend in February, photographers old and young experienced and novice, hit the streets of Alameda, each with a camera and a little square section of an Alameda map.

Earlier, according to the plan of Debra Owen, executive director of the Frank Bette Center for the Arts, they dug their hands into a paper bag filled with 40 small sections of the map to find out where they would spend the weekend photographing.

One man picked the waterfront down by the Grand Street Marina, and another woman got a section of the trail running along the water on Bay Farm Island. Heather Schubeck picked No. 23 -- a part of the map in central Alameda where Encinal meets Central avenues -- and, boy, was she glad that she did.

"I wanted (an area) with a bar in it," the 25-year-old Alameda photographer said.

The Forbidden Island tiki bar welcomed her and her camera into the exotic, bamboo-laden watering hole on that Saturday night. The result of her photo shoot is now on display with about 40 other photos and mixed media pieces at the Frank Bette Center for the Arts in Alameda through April 29.

Schubeck's candid black-and-white photograph called "Thayer" is of tiki bar waitress Thayer Lund cheerfully serving a fruity drink under a canopy comprised of those little paper umbrellas that customers have carefully stuffed with dollar bills over the past few years.

Schubeck enjoys photographing people and is good at it, but she knew she had to push herself to take pictures of other things on her piece of the map.

"It was an excellent challenge because the subject matter is infinite but you have a finite amount of time (to photograph)," she said. "What's great about it is when the 48 hours is over; you've got what you've got."

Erica Agyeman didn't get so lucky when she drew No. 8 out of the paper bag.

Agyeman, who works at the center, picked an area on Bay Farm Island, which in the summer months could offer opportunities for photographing bikers, fishermen, dog walks and lots and lots of kids. But that weekend it was cold and rainy and the trail was nearly empty.

"I had to be resourceful and that was the cool part about the project," she said.

Even after her trusty but well-worn Nikon stopped working, Agyeman took out her cheap digital camera and shot two photos, "Bike Rack" and "Spring," both on display at the center.

Bill Dominguez was strolling along Gibbons Drive -- one of the Island's more idyllic streets -- when he spotted a young nanny and her charges.

He was interested in photographing the children at play, but the nanny wanted to get permission from the mother first. She did and the mom happily invited Dominguez into the family home.

He snapped a photo of a baby spitting out a mighty fine temper tantrum, lovingly named "Beckett Future King of Alameda."

The Frank Bette Center for the Arts, 1601 Paru St., is the former home and studio of the late Frank Bette. Bette, an antique furniture restorer who died in 1999 at age 96, bequeathed the two-story Victorian for a community arts center "Where people could have meetings, readings, showings and other creative doings."