Comments in Bangkok Post, 1986

Self-portrait Skating Backwards, Venice, Ca. 1982.

Jerry Burchard’s vision is refreshingly off-beat. In his Morocco there are no camels with squinty-eyed riders. His California is devoid of sun. His Thailand avoids the commonplace vapidity of smiles and folklore.
His feel is for long exposures and for the night.
Padraig Rooney
The Bangkok Post
Sunday, June 22, 1986.

Padraig, Jerry's neighbor in Bangkok and writer for the Bangkok Post, recently wrote this about Jerry:
"He walked the city at night with his camera, catching not so much the people as the way streetlight and neon bounce off buildings. He was a third-generation Rochester Kodak boy and a patient hoarder of ambient light."

Views from Jerry's Penthouse Apartment, 1980

One time Jerry told me that he was invited into an apartment that overlooked his little rooftop apartment, and to his surprise people could look right into his place.
Two of its walls were mostly windows.
These images were taken by Alberta Mayo, who was taken to the apartment by Joel Sackett to check on the place while Jerry was away.

Jerry and Joel Sackett from sometime ago..... at Jerry's penthouse in North Beach. Photo by Daniel Caracelo.

Jerry at his penthouse with Tom Zimmerman, Steve Sokol, Bill Arnold,

Indeborg Gerdes, and Paul Meinheit in 1976 with Coit Tower in the background.

(photo supplied by Indeborg)

Jerry's Place in Bangkok, Thailand

The outside of the house. (photo by Namo Kruwatsuthat)
Self portrait, Thailand 1981

Jerry Burchard loved being in Thailand, with this place as being his residence of choice.



Jerry offered it to me a few times,
but he said that I would have to
like dogs.
(photo by Namo)




Jerry Burchard's favorite neighborhood restaurant in Bangkok. (photo by Namo Kruwatsuthat)

Lately there has been a lot of flooding in Thailand due to heavy rains and water release from up-river dams. In 1988 Jerry Burchard took this photo down the alley from where he was living at.
Click here for a little rainy day in Bangkok story by Jerry.

To see the neighborhood where Jerry would stay at under water, click here.

Jerry Memorial in Thailand

There will be a ceremony in Bangkok, Thailand dedicated to our deceased friends and relatives on the 4th of December. I have chosen this picture of Jerry Burchard which will be placed on the altar.

Namo Kruwatsuthat

(photos by Namo Kruwatsuthat, second photo by Joel Sackett)

Jerry Burchard - Later Residence

The view out Jerry's window. (photo by Dennis Hearne.)

Jerry's living room, where he spent most of his time for the last 10 years. The bedroom was full of boxes of prints, a computer, and a very big black and white printer.
(photo by Dennis Hearne.)

He collected metal car replicas. I never knew Jerry having a real car.
(photo by Dennis Hearne.)

Later in life Jerry lived in a retirement apartment complex across the street from the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts and the Moscone Center on Mission Street. The place was full of old Chinese ladies who had outlived their husbands. Ira helped find the apartment for him.
One of the things that Jerry liked about the apartment was that it was on the 30 Stockton bus line right at the corner. So he could go down the elevator, out the door, get on the bus, and ride on up to North Beach to have coffee and pastry and meet old friends. Jerry always thought fondly of San Francisco's North Beach, it was his home turf.
This place was near SFMOMA, of which he was a member, right below on the street was a little market for an exotic soda or snack, and a couple of blocks away from an organic supermarket. He told me that it was sometimes cold, but there was no stairs to climb.

The hallway walls of the apartment were covered with old Chinese posters.
(photo by Randy Magnus)

Jerry Burchard in his apartment that he lived in for the last 10 years on Mission Street.
(photo by Randy Magnus)

Jerry in the Navy, School, and Being Cool

More images of Jerry Burchard, shot in the 70's can be seen here.

Jerry & The North Beach Gang

Jerry Burchard with Ingeborg, Ira, Joel, and Gary Stewart on the left. The photo was taken at the old Cafe Roma on Columbus, Jerry's favorite place at that moment.
Taken by Jyo Koshida in the mid '70s.

Jerry Burchard's Photo Influences

Andre Kertesz in his home in New York City. Jerry spent a couple afternoons with Kertesz, listening to Andre comment on his photographs. (photo by Jerry Burchard.)

Other influences in Jerry Burchard's work included English photographer Bill Brandt along with his college instructors FSA photographers John Collier Jr. and Dorothea Lange. You can see Jerry's portraits of the people that inspired him by clicking here.

Beat By The Bay - SF Artists from the 50's

Wally Hedrick, Courtesy Jerry Burchard Estate, c. 1957

Beat by the Bay:
SF Artists & Galleries of the Fifties
Curated by John Held, Jr.

Less publicized then the Beat poet and writers (Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs, McClure, et al), the visual artists of the time assumed an important role in promoting an alternative vision of society influencing successive generations. The Ever Gold exhibition reintroduces their work to a contemporary audience, who can find much to admire in the lifestyles of struggling Beat artists and the gallery structures they erected for mutual encouragement.

Ever Gold Gallery
441 O’Farrell St.
San Francisco, Ca 94102
December 8th, 2011 – January 6th, 2012
Opening Reception: December 8th from 6-10 pm.

Jerry Burchard will have 8 portraits which were taken in the 50's as part of the exhibit. Some of them can be seen by clicking here.

Jerry Burchard

December 1, 1931 - May 17, 2011

Night photographer, instructor,
man of the world -
Jerry Burchard.
RIP.

Like a stream of light in his photographs,
he was passing thru...... enjoying life.

...A North Beach kind of guy, who
loved Southeast Asia.
Shine on......

written by Randy Magnus

(photo of Jerry in the leather jacket is by
Ingeborg Gerdes taken with a
half-frame camera at the Palace Theatre's
midnight movies scene in the 1970's.)