Photographer Dave Glass
Dave Glass’s Polish parents met at a displaced persons camp in Europe after World War II.
In this Season 9 inaugural episode, meet and get to know Dave. A born-and-raised San Francisco, Dave joined me back in August in the SF Public Press office/studio at Warfield Commons to record the first-ever Storied: San Francisco live episode. Our talk that night comprises this episode.
Dave’s mom and dad got married at that camp in Germany and had their first kid, Dave’s sister, there. The young couple wanted to come to the US, but had to wait another five years in Europe for that to materialize.
Finally, they made it, via the port of New Orleans. Their American sponsor lived in Stockton, which they made their way to by trains and buses. Dave’s dad later told him that when they arrived in California, Stockton looked to him like all cowboys and Mexicans.
The family’s sponsor owned a ranch, and the arrangement was that Dave’s mom and dad would work there. One day, his dad’s boss sent him to San Francisco, an hour or so away, for supplies. One taste of The City, and his dad knew he had to move his family here.
It was early 1951 and Dave’s mom was already pregnant with him. The family made the move to the big city regardless. They settled in the Western Addition on the corner of Webster and Fulton. This was before redevelopment, mind you. In addition to its sizable Black population, there were also a significant number of European refugees in the neighborhood, too. Dave fondly remembers being a little boy and going to the Ukrainian bakery at the corner of Webster and McAllister.
Other memories from Dave’s early days include vague visions of the Acme beer brewery across from his house. Dave lets us know that today, there are remnants of that building still standing.
Around the time Dave started school, his family moved to the Sunset District. This is when his memories really get going. He went to Parkside Elementary, which is today known as Dianne Feinstein.
Dave rewinds a little to share the story of when Eisenhower visited SF as president. Dave’s mom got him, his sister, and herself dressed up. They walked down to Van Ness, where the presidential motorcade was set to pass by. He recalls the president sitting, not in the car’s seat, but above it, in open air, riding down the avenue waving at folks. So much about this would never happen today.
When he was 10, Dave got his first camera. At our live event, he shared a photo he took with that camera at his sister’s birthday party, seen in a gallery on this page. It’s one of the oldest photos he has that he took himself.
At that time, Dave was just a “kid with a camera,” not serious about the art whatsoever. But his dad had a Leica camera and did take photography more seriously, at least when it came to family photos. He had bartered for the camera when he lived in the displaced persons camp in Europe, and had photos from that time. Dave still has some of those pictures.
We go on a bit of a sidebar here, thanks to my question about how folks got their camera film developed back in the day. We also chat about the nature of film vs. digital.
When he was in high school, Dave joined the photo club and developed in a darkroom for his first time. He says it was around this time that he started to have an affection for photography.
We have to mention that he went to Lowell, which came after time at Herbert Hoover Junior High School. Dave points out that, even back then, “smart” kids went to Lowell, including his sister. Dave says he more or less got in on legacy, not good grades. He brought that with him through high school, and chose to go to City College when he wasn’t able to get into four-year schools.
In 1969, City College’s photography program was a serious one. Dave considers it blue-collar, in fact, aimed at turning students into professional photographers. Dave ended up taking photos for the school paper, something he loved doing.
I ask Dave about the late-Sixties in SF, and he obliges. He was 16 when the Summer of Love happened, and living just a few neighborhoods away from the Haight/Ashbury, his eyes were opened. He and his friends would visit the Haight every couple of days. He says it got so crowded with tourist buses and people that The City made Haight a one-way street. Still, they saw bands like Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane, and Country Joe and the Fish at small venues or outdoors in the park.
We go on a sidebar here to talk about The Fillmore back in the day.
Dave’s first job, which he had while still in high school, was selling shoes at Kinny Shoes (IYKYK) at Serramonte, which had just opened. Dave shares a family photo and talks a little about it, also available here in the gallery.
Eventually, relatives moved to San Francisco and lived nearby Dave’s family, so he grew up with cousins and aunts and uncles. Dave confirms that it was the case that he and his friends, like many folks I talk with who grew up back then, pretty much did whatever they wanted after school, with the understanding that you go home when it gets dark out. His stories include building skateboards out of wooden 2×4s and roller skates.
Then we talk about a significant turn in Dave’s life. It was the late-Sixties and the war in Vietnam was heating up. The draft was in effect, and the number of units Dave was taking at City College had fallen below the threshold for deferment. That year, 1969, had seen more US casualties than any year prior. His parents, having escaped war-torn Europe earlier in their lives, did not want their son serving in the military in any capacity. Some of his dad’s relatives had settled in Paris after WWII. They helped arrange for Dave to live there for about six months starting in the fall of 1970.
Check back tomorrow for Part 2 and the rest of Dave Glass’s life story.
Follow Dave on Instagram @daveglass_foto.
We recorded this podcast in the SF Public Press studio at Warfield Commons in August 2026.
Photography by Nate Oliveira
