Castro Camera
{{Use mdy dates|date=February 2025}}
{{Use American English|date=January 2025}}
{{Infobox building
|name = Castro Camera
|image = Castro camera exterior.jpg
|caption = Castro Camera storefront, as recreated for the 2008 film Milk
|map_type =
|latitude =
|longitude =
|start_date = 1972
|address = 575 Castro Street
|location_town = Castro District, San Francisco, California
|location_country = United States of America
|website =
}}
Castro Camera was a camera store in the Castro District of San Francisco, California, operated by Harvey Milk from 1972 until his assassination in 1978. During the 1970s the store became the center of the neighborhood's growing gay community, as well as campaign headquarters for Milk's various campaigns for elected office.
History
File:Harvey Milk with Audrey Milk 1973.jpg, here with his sister-in-law in front of Castro Camera in 1973]]
Milk, an avid amateur photographer,{{cite news|title=Hot flash gallery:The Milk Issue: Now and then in the photography of Daniel Nicoletta|author=Johnny Ray Huston|date=2008-11-19|publisher=San Francisco Bay Guardian|url=http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_id=7543&catid=85&volume_id=398&issue_id=406&volume_num=43&issue_num=08}} was disappointed over a developer ruining a roll of film. With his then-partner, Scott Smith, Milk opened the store in 1972, using the last $1,000 of their savings. The store soon became a focus of the growing influx of young gay people, who were coming from across the US to the Castro, where their sexual orientation was accepted.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kW4hkULCkxwC&pg=PA87|title=The Mayor of Castro Street:the Life and Times of Harvey Milk|author=Randy Shilts|date=1988|publisher=Macmillan|isbn=978-0-312-01900-6}}
Beyond selling cameras and film, Milk turned the store into a social center, and a refuge for new arrivals.{{cite news|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/11/27/MILK.TMP|title=From Milk's times to our times:Hard to fathom gay rights gains since 'St. Harvey' fell|author=Meredith May|date=2003-11-27}} He also made it an official polling station for San Francisco elections.{{cite news|url=http://www.sanfranmag.com/story/harvey-milk-effect#story_top|publisher=San Francisco Magazine|title=The Harvey Milk effect|author=Heather Smith and Bennett Cohen|access-date=2008-11-28|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111002171033/http://www.sanfranmag.com/story/harvey-milk-effect#story_top|archive-date=2011-10-02|url-status=dead}} Because he was so well known for his civic involvement promoting gay businesses and gay consumers, Milk soon became known unofficially as the "Mayor of Castro Street". Daniel Nicoletta, the photographer best known for chronicling Milk and his times, first met Milk as a patron of the store, then later worked there as a store assistant and campaign worker. Another customer, Anne Kronenberg, who later became Milk's campaign manager, also met Milk at the store, and described her first impression of him as a "raving maniac".{{cite news|publisher=Bay Area Reporter|url=http://www.ebar.com/arts/art_article.php?sec=film&article=578|title=Lesbian at the heart of Milk's posse|author=David Lamble|date=2008-11-20}} Other members of Milk's inner circle such as Cleve Jones and his speechwriter Frank Robinson met, befriended, and worked with Milk at the store.{{cite news|publisher=Time Out New York|date=2008-11-20|title=Milking it:In a new biopic, gay-rights activist Cleve Jones sees an icon honored at last|author=Sharyn Jackson}}{{cite news|url=http://www.edgechicago.com/index.php?ch=news&sc=&sc2=features&sc3=&id=83591|publisher=Windy City Times|title=Frank Robinson on Harvey Milk|author=Andrew Davis|date=2008-11-20}}
Post-closure
File:Castro camera interior.jpg]]
The location at 575 Castro Street, a Human Rights Campaign Store as of 2011,{{cite news|publisher=NY Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/us/20milk.html|title=Harvey Milk's Shop, Center of a Movement, Is Now the Center of an Internal Fight|date=2010-12-19}} was recreated as a set for Milk, the biopic of Milk's life.{{cite news|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|title=Picturing Harvey Milk:Filming of movie evokes memories, emotions in the Castro|author=Steven Winn|date=2008-01-30|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/30/MNUBULUI1.DTL&feed=rss.gay}} The sparse set, carefully built to original detail including an old red couch and barber's chair,{{cite news|url=http://www.leylandpublications.com/exc_outincastro.htm|author=Anne Kronenberg|title=Everybody Needed Milk|publisher=Leyland Publications}} drew the attention of many local residents who remembered the original. The modern-day shop owner and film crew also described seeing a ghost at the store, whom they assumed to be Milk.{{Cite news|url=http://www.3news.co.nz/Harvey-Milks-ghost-stops-by-film-set/tabid/418/articleID/79811/cat/55/Default.aspx|publisher=3 News|title=Harvey Milk's ghost stops by film set|date=2008-11-13|access-date=2008-11-26|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120324081025/http://www.3news.co.nz/Harvey-Milks-ghost-stops-by-film-set/tabid/418/articleID/79811/cat/55/Default.aspx|archive-date=2012-03-24|url-status=dead}}{{cite news|work=The Times|url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/travel/destinations/usa/article5529873.ece|date=2009-01-17|title=Harvey Milk's San Francisco | location=London | first=Tim | last=Teeman | accessdate=2010-04-28}}{{dead link|date=September 2024|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}
A metal plaque set into the sidewalk in front of the store memorializes Milk,{{cite news|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|url=http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/06/23/DD16GAY.DTL|date=2000-06-23|title=Where History Was Made:A tour of 41 points of gay interest all across the city|author=Sam Whiting}} and the location has been used as the stepping-off point for an annual memorial march on the date of his death.
Artifacts from Castro Camera, including Milk's barber chair, a collection of antique cameras that was displayed at the store and the front panel of the awning bearing the name of the shop, are preserved in the holdings of the GLBT Historical Society, a museum, archives and research center in San Francisco. The society displayed the camera collection in an exhibition it devoted to Milk in 2003, "Saint Harvey: The Life and Afterlife of a Modern Gay Martyr."{{cite news
| last = Delgado
| first = Ray
| title = Museum opens downtown with look at 'Saint Harvey'; exhibitions explore history of slain supervisor, rainbow flag
| work = San Francisco Chronicle
| date = 2003-06-06
| url = https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/COMMUNITY-Museum-opens-downtown-with-look-at-2611013.php
| access-date = 2011-07-09}} In addition, the art director for Milk consulted the collection when creating props for the Castro Camera set.Koskovich, Gérard (2009-03-02). [http://yagg.com/2009/03/02/semaine-harvey-milk-a-quoi-sert-un-centre-darchives-lgbt-le-film-de-gus-van-sant-donne-une-reponse-par-gerard-koskovich/ "A quoi sert un centre d'archives? Le film de Gus Van Sant donne une réponse,"] Yagg.com; consulted 2011-07-15.
In July 2022, an art gallery and events space named Queer Arts Featured opened in the former Castro Camera.{{Cite web |date=2022-07-19 |title='Queer Arts Featured' Opens in Harvey Milk’s Camera Shop |url=https://sfstandard.com/2022/07/19/queer-arts-featured-a-gallery-and-event-space-opens-in-harvey-milks-former-camera-shop/ |access-date=2024-12-28 |website=The San Francisco Standard |language=en}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
{{Portal|San Francisco Bay Area}}
{{Castro District, San Francisco}}
{{Harvey Milk}}
{{LGBT history in the United States}}
{{LGBT in the United States}}
{{coord|37.759786|N|122.43468|W|type:landmark_region:US-CA_source:jawiki|display=title}}
Category:Commercial buildings in San Francisco
Category:Castro District, San Francisco
Category:LGBTQ history in San Francisco
Category:LGBTQ places in the United States
Category:Retail buildings in California
Category:Photographic retailers
Category:San Francisco Designated Landmarks
Category:1972 establishments in California