San Francisco fire escapes are omnipresent, but easy to overlook, ignore, or disdain.  To those observers who actually look at them, they may seem intrusive.

But even when they hang from the front of a fine six-story building and seem to interfere with a clear view of its facade, the fire escapes add more than they detract aesthetically.  That is especially so in good light that creates strong shadows.  It is hard to fault any device so patently -- if only contingently -- useful and mechanically simple.  But beyond the escapes' pure functionality, it is easy to admire their decorative frison, their filigree of slender metal elements that adorn brick and concrete with lacy steel and iron mantillas.  Their variety of designs and grillwork and purely decorative touches reveals the care taken when each was conceived.  Was there some acknowledged Master Craftsman of San Francisco fire escapes? A specialty subcontractor? Or just a mix-and-match parts-and-plans catalogue?  

Of course escapes would be a building code legacy of any city that endured the earthquake and fire of 1906, but there is an inherent irony that fire escapes are so prominent in the American city that no one really wants to leave. Compare "Escape from New York," the Kurt Russell movie; for many people, escaping New York seems like a good idea.  But San Francisco is a different kettle of lobster; escape from San Francisco seems unthinkable.

These images depict a sample of fire escapes made even more intricate by the shadows they cast in bright light.  The last image is a very-high-contrast B&W conversion to reduce the steel and shadows to their design elements.  I used a medium telephoto lens for all of these images, to isolate the escapes' features and to allow us to see more clearly what we may gloss over as we march through the city.