CABLE CAR, SAN FRANCISCO (1947) BY MAX YAVNO

Max Yavno (1911-1985) started out taking pictures of New York for use in theatre set design, under Roosevelt’s New Deal. Post-war, he took what he had learned to California, where he photographed life on the streets of San Francisco and Los Angeles, at a time when both cities were enjoying newfound prosperity.

Pictured here are commuters on the Washington-Jackson line of San Francisco’s famous cable car system. The year Yavno took the picture (which features in an exhibition of street photographs at the Robert Koch gallery, San Francisco) the mayor had tried to rid the city of these 19thcentury relics, but thanks to a celebrity-endorsed campaign and a landslide public vote, he was forced to retain them. Details: kochgallery.com