Documenting an Outer Mission corner by tintype
Kari Orvik’s tintype portrait studio looks out on Outer Mission District shops that are as old-time and analog as the pictures she makes.
There is the pharmacy with a post office in the rear, the watch and jewelry repair shop, the barber, and the surplus store selling work boots and war medals.
They are all shopkeepers trying to get by until they retire, sell out or are priced out, just like Orvik. If they go, some will have one thing to take with them — a one-of-a-kind picture on a glass or metal plate. When Orvik isn’t booked with a paying customer, she has invited neighborhood merchants upstairs for a portrait sitting.